A Brother's Dream
by septasonicxx
Summary: Sequel to Roy Peters. AU. 'I want to show him that I'm not a kid anymore.' Chapter Eighteen: Jinx is a...
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

The sun was just rising over Midgar when a seventeen-year-old boy with scarring that marred his every facial feature stepped off the train which had pulled into the station. He shouldered the bag on his back, his eyes taking in every inch of scenery he could see and his hands clenching into fists nervously by his sides. There was already a fairly large crowd of people around despite the early hour of the morning and the boy was taken aback for a moment.

Sucking in a deep breath, he then set off through the city at a steady pace, making sure to keep track of the time by the watch he wore on his wrist. He had the whole day to find his way to his final destination, but since he also needed to buy some supplies he was allowing for the extra time in case he couldn't find something at first. The first and most desperate need was some food.

Ignoring the wide-eyed glances of passers-by who caught sight of his face, he clenched his jaw and looked around for any food shops nearby. Spotting a small bakery to his left, he quickly went over and fished out his gil from his pocket. The owner was bending down for something beneath the counter so he cleared his throat to alert him of his presence.

As the owner straightened up to look at his customer, he gasped and stumbled back slightly.

"Shiva! That's not something you see everyday," he commented, wiping his hands on his pants.

The seventeen-year-old boy shifted awkwardly and then said, "I'd like to buy some bread."

"Oh, o'course." The owner nodded and reached over for a bag before raising his eyebrows expectantly, waiting for the boy to say what he wanted.

After selecting a few loaves and then handing over the gil, the boy walked away and began to eat. He thought about what else he needed to do, scanning all around for a place where he could purchase the things on his mental list.

He had just spotted a shop selling all sorts of different objects when he was distracted by a voice calling his name and turned around. A boy of fourteen was running towards him, a bag on his back also and a determined expression on his face. When he reached the older boy he doubled over, hands on his knees as he caught his breath.

Straightening again, he glared, "You could have waited for me!"

"You said you weren't coming," the seventeen-year-old replied easily, a hint of a smile showing through his deformed face.

"Yeah, well," the younger boy shrugged non-committally and averted his eyes guiltily before mumbling, "I changed my mind."

"I can see that." The older boy pulled out some bread and handed it over, deciding that his friend was going to need it if he was really coming. "I just have to stop in at another shop first, okay Owen?"

Owen nodded as he dug into the bread, not even looking up as the other boy headed off quickly to the shop he'd seen. It didn't take long, though, and soon he was back with another bag of general things.

"So," Owen said excitedly, looking up at him this time and still munching away on his bread. "This is actually happening?"

The boy with scars smiled, nodding once.

"Let's go then."

Laden with everything they needed, they set off again at an easy pace. Owen chatted constantly, grinning and staring around at everything with wide eyes. Neither of the two boys had ever been to Midgar before, but it was quite obvious which one was enjoying the occasion more than the other.

They only had to ask for directions a few times, mostly just to determine the quickest route to where they were going, before they suddenly found themselves walking into the foyer area of the ShinRa building.

Owen looked as if he was going to keel over with excitement.

"Stop gawking," the other boy teased. "You look like a fish."

Owen snapped his mouth shut and shoved the other boy playfully, still allowing his eyes to roam around the room at everything.

"Oh my gosh!" he exclaimed, quickly grabbing the older boy's arm and pointing over to the side of the room where two men stood talking. "It's a SOLDIER!"

Quickly reined in, Owen grumbled as he was pulled over towards the receptionist desk by his shirt, practically tripping over his feet as he walked half-backwards. He was only released when they got to the desk and then he watched eagerly as the boy with scars waited for the receptionist to address them.

"Yes, boys?" she finally asked, looking up at them. It was the first time anyone had looked at the scars without gasping or staring in shock. "How may I help you?"

"We'd both like to join up to the SOLDIER program."

"Of course!" The receptionist smiled warmly and picked up a couple forms, passing them over to the boys. "I'll call the man in charge... well, whoever is available really, to let them know there are some new recruits here. If you could just fill those out for me, though? Basic information is needed."

Flashing one last smile, the receptionist handed across two pens before picking up the phone and dialling a number.

The forms consisted of very general questions and the two boys quickly began answering them. Name, age, gender, hair and eyes were the simplest. Owen was racing through it all, biting his lip anxiously as he did. The boy with scars, however, was stumped by one particular question. 'Why do you want to become a SOLDIER?'

He had once memorised his answer for this and would have been able to recite it to anyone who asked, but it was no longer that simple. It had been a child's answer.

He was not a child.

Sighing quietly and frowning, he eventually settled for a short sentence, 'It's not a want, it's a need.' No doubt people would want to know more about that when they read it, but he didn't care. It was all he could think of to sum up his feelings about the situation.

"Done!" Owen announced, handing the form back to the receptionist. She was finishing up on the phone but took it from him, smiling and winking at him. Blushing, Owen grinned shyly and looked down at his shoes.

Also finishing up, the boy with scars handed his form over.

"Alright," the receptionist said as she hung up the phone. "One of the SOLDIER instructors, Brawn, will be here in a minute to let you know what's going to happen next."

"Thank you." Owen gushed before the other boy could say anything.

"It's my pleasure," she said with a smile, glancing down at his form before back up at him. "I hope you enjoy your stay here, Owen."

"Oh, I will!" he said with an enthusiastic nod.

"You can sit on those chairs over there while you wait if you'd like," the receptionist said kindly, gesturing to the chairs in question. Owen nodded, blushed again, and practically bolted over to the seats.

The boy with scars grimaced and shot the receptionist an apologetic look – what he hoped was an apologetic look, at least – but she simply smiled again and then glanced down at his own form to find out his name. The smile turned into alarm as she gasped and squinted down at it before looking back up at him.

"Is something wrong?" he asked immediately, hands clenching into fists. What could have been on his form to bring such a reaction from her?

"S-sorry," she quickly said, plastering a fake smile on her face again. "Nothing's wrong. Welcome to ShinRa, Roy Peters."


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: Finally! It's chapter one of the sequel to Roy Peters! I really hope you enjoy this, everyone. (For all who would like to know, YES I WON NANOWRIMO! 50,000 WORDS ARE IN THE BAG, BABY!)

Also, I'm really sorry to everyone who suggested a title because this title that I've decided on has been tumbling around in my head for a while and wouldn't let me choose anything else. I hope you like it! And if you're disappointed that your title wasn't chosen, I'd just like to say that I am feeling almost as bad as you! See, I really REALLY wanted to write some crack!fics for people... so much so, in fact, that I've actually decided everyone who suggested a title can have a crack!fic just for entering my little contest! So if you're one of those four people (yes, four, I really didn't get many) then feel free to message me with what you'd like me to write! Please remember to keep in mind the 'rules' of the contest.

Okay and now, onto chapter 1! Enjoy and please review!

* * *

A gasp.

Colours slowly formed in front of his eyes and soon those colours turned into shapes and figures. He could hear a faint beeping, although it barely even registered in his ears. It was hard to pick up amongst the buzzing that sounded around and inside his head.

His eyes moved sluggishly as he tried to take in more of his surroundings. His head was unable to move so he had to turn his eyes to try and see around himself, but he still couldn't make out any of the shapes as they were far too blurred. He tried anyway, blinking in an attempt to clear his vision.

After a moment he became aware that he had a headache. In fact, now that he thought about it he quickly realised it wasn't just his head that was in pain. It was his entire body.

He closed his eyes again, too tired and sore to continue trying to make sense out of the splashes of colour that made up his world.

Maybe he'd try again, later...

* * *

Choking, thrashing.

What was happening? What were they saying? Who were they? Where was Kayli?

Choking.

"He's gonna vomit!"

Fear invaded his mind as he listened to the voice that spoke and found no recognition spark within his mind. Where was he and why couldn't he remember anything? His body continued to thrash violently and he slowly realised that the gagging sounds he could hear were his own.

"Yeah … Keep him restrained …"

"…pressure."

* * *

The almost silence of the room was shattered as he woke up screaming. Pain exploded all over his body as he jerked and he quickly stopped moving, trying to ease the pain. His scream became a sob and he tried to form words but none came.

A sense of loneliness swept over him and he continued to sob pathetically, wishing his eyes would focus so that he could see where he was. He wished Kayli was with him! Was she okay? Where was she?

A shadow moved at the side of where he lay and he looked over with his eyes immediately, beginning to panic. But the shadow was small as it moved towards him and extended a thin arm, gently taking hold of his hand with what felt like its own. He couldn't tell who it was but for a moment wondered if it was Kayli. Could it be?

It was too good to be true.

"It's okay," the young voice of a boy spoke calmly. "I'm here."

* * *

Fear. However long it had been since he had last surfaced, it hadn't been long enough. The fear continued to plague his mind and no matter how hard he tried to push it away it lingered; inescapable.

He opened his eyes slowly, the brightness of the room startling him. Had it always been this bright or was this a new development? He didn't know. All he knew was he could see properly now when he hadn't been able to before.

"Yes, but they keep asking!"

He was startled by the voice which interrupted his thoughts and quickly moved his eyes to the left, spotting two figures standing at the side of the room. One was a woman and one was a man. The woman had been the one to speak.

"Don't worry, when he wakes up-"

The man looked over at him and stopped talking, eyes widening as he saw the boy he had just been talking about was already awake. The woman gasped as she also noticed his open eyes and hurriedly moved over to his right side, bending down slightly over him.

"Hey," she murmured quietly. "You probably can't talk right now because of... what you've been through, but you'll be fine soon."

"Yeah," the man agreed, also stepping closer but remaining to the left. "We're gonna make sure you're looked after."

His eyes burned from the light and his head pounded. Who were these people? Why were they promising to look after him when he didn't even know who they were?"

He shut his eyes. Trying to escape.

* * *

"Hey, are you awake?"

He groaned, keeping his eyes closed tightly. He recognised the voice this time, although only because it was the voice of the woman who had spoken to him the last time he woke up. What did she want?

"Is he okay?" A man's voice asked cautiously, worry evident in his tone.

"I don't know," the woman murmured. He suddenly felt something on his head and flinched before realising it was just someone gently stroking his hair. "Come on, you're going to be fine."

"Do you want me to call the doctor?" the man's voice spoke again.

"Not yet," came the reply.

Slowly, he opened his eyes. Her face was right above his and as soon as his eyes opened completely a smile spread across her lips, her eyes sparkling.

"Hey," she whispered. "You've been asleep for two days."

Two days. It felt like two minutes.

"We're going to look after you, alright? You don't have anything to be afraid of," she continued, her hand still carefully stroking his hair comfortingly. He swallowed awkwardly and glanced around, noticing for the first time that he was hooked up to a heart monitor. That must have been why he could always hear beeping in his dreams.

He was in a hospital.

A violent shudder abruptly coursed through his body and left him heaving, his eyes rolling backwards into his head as memories assailed him from nowhere. He was vaguely aware of the woman screaming for a doctor but was too preoccupied with the feeling of fire that had erupted all over his body. The pain was so severe that he felt as if he was dying.

If only he _had_ died. It would have been over sooner.

"Miel!"

"It's okay, the doctor's on his way!"

"I-I don't know what happened-"

"It's okay, shh."

They had stopped consoling him and now they were just talking to each other. All he could see was the same face in his mind that wouldn't leave him alone. He could feel every single one of his wounds as if someone had reopened them. It was torture.

Torture.

Surprisingly for a nine-year-old boy, he knew what that was like.

* * *

Everything felt different. That was the first thing he noticed when he woke up again. There was still a dull ache throughout his body reminding him of his wounds, but even that felt different to how it had before. It was almost as if-

His eyes shot open and he gasped, feeling and hearing his heart speed up in surprise. He was still in the hospital, but everything had changed. The pain was nowhere near as bad as it had been before. He could _think_ properly! The headache was now only a faint drum at the back of his head. He was recovering!

The door opened and he looked over, not at all surprised to see the woman that had been there almost every time he had woken up. She looked tired and he was surprised that he could actually tell. She sighed as she closed the door behind her and then turned back, glancing over at him with a sad expression.

Instantaneously, her eyes lit up and she gasped as she hurried over to his side.

"You're awake!" she exclaimed, shaking her head lightly as she let out a sweet laugh.

The sound reminded him of his mother.

"I'll call the doctor," she said next, reaching an arm over to the wall behind his head. After that she pulled up a chair and sat down, constantly smiling at him. "How are you feeling?"

He swallowed, his throat feeling a bit scratchy as he did so.

"It's alright if you can't speak just yet," she continued then, her smile becoming sad but staying in place. "You've been through a lot."

The door behind her suddenly opened and she turned her head to look, watching as the doctor entered the room. The boy watched as well, cautious as the man wearing the white coat approached him.

"Hello there," the man said warmly, dimples appearing on his face as he smiled. "It's good to see you finally awake!" As he spoke, he moved around to check various things that the boy knew nothing about, appearing cheerful the whole time.

"I'm not sure if he can speak yet," the woman said quietly.

"How about we give it a try, alright?" The doctor spoke to the boy, pausing in what he was doing to bend over him slightly. "Can you try and say something for me? How about your name, do you remember that?"

The boy swallowed again and opened his mouth, wanting to be able to do what this nice man was asking him to. He still felt a bit sore in places, but did his best to formulate words. Besides, there were some things he wanted to ask as well.

"R-Roy," he managed finally.

"Hi Roy," the doctor replied, his face lighting up even more as he was proud of the boy's efforts. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired," Roy said quietly. He took a few short breaths before breathing in deeply and trying to speak again, "And sore."

"That's to be expected," the doctor said with a nod. "You've been in a very bad accident."

Roy shuddered and turned his face away, not wanting to talk about the 'accident' at all. That was one thing he could remember perfectly.

"Listen," the doctor continued. "Could you tell us where your family is? We'd like to get in contact with your parents as soon as possible. If there's a number or something you could give us that would be great. But if you can't remember right away I don't want you to worry, alright?"

The woman had tensed up for some reason and was leaning closer to Roy's bed, worry plain on her face.

"If I may interrupt," she said suddenly, startling both Roy and the doctor as they turned to look at her. "You know that I-I think he's an orphan."

Roy stared at the woman, confused as to why she was saying this and why she was also staring right back at him with an almost desperate expression on her face. He felt as though she wanted him to confirm her thought, but couldn't work out why. He had two loving parents and a loving sister and-

"Th-that's right," Roy found himself mumbling. "I have no family."

"I see," the doctor said slowly, straightening up with a frown on his face.

"Could we have a moment?" the woman asked then, catching the doctor's eyes and pleading with her own. He sighed before nodding, walking out the door and shutting it behind him so that Roy and the woman were alone again.

The woman pulled her chair closer to the bed, watching Roy closely and worriedly.

"I'm sorry I said that," she said quietly.

"Why did you?" Roy asked, his head beginning to feel heavy again now.

"I'm not letting you go back there," the woman said sincerely. "I can't allow you to go back and be at risk again."

Roy was silent as he thought about his sister, Kayli, and wondered whether she would be okay without him. When he had first thought of her he had been terrified, thinking that he had to get back to her to protect her, but now he remembered something that changed his mind and made him think it might be okay not to go back at all.

_"Do you have any idea how much I hate you? All I ever wanted was to spend time with Kayli, but you would never go away! Now, I'm going to _make_ you go away."_

Roy trembled at the memory, but it only strengthened the thought in his mind that Kayli would be okay without him. Besides, she was the one that was loved. She would be safe. 'He' would never hurt Kayli.

"Are you okay?" the woman asked again, gazing down at him sadly and reaching forward to gently take hold of his hand.

"Yeah," Roy replied, not wanting to talk about it and hoping that she wouldn't question him further.

"I'm sorry if you're upset-"

The door opened again and the woman turned quickly, relaxing once she saw it was only the man from before. Roy still did not know who he was and found himself unconsciously tightening his grip on the woman's hand.

"Roy," she said calmly, smiling at him again. "This is my husband, Miel. It's okay, he's not going to hurt you."

Roy forced himself to relax but followed the man, Miel, with his eyes as he walked around to sit on a chair beside the bed opposite the woman.

"Oh!" the woman suddenly exclaimed, capturing Roy's attention again as he flicked his eyes back to her quickly. "I forgot to tell you _my_ name! I'm Inez."

Roy nodded but didn't say anything in reply, remaining silent.

"I saw the doctor outside," Miel said quietly, speaking across to the woman. "So this boy Roy _is_ an orphan?"

The woman glanced down at Roy again, biting her lip nervously, before looking back up at her husband. "I think he only said it to agree with me. I think... I think he wants what we want."

Miel nodded sadly and looked down at Roy, letting out a sigh.

"Listen," Inez said to Roy then. "I told the doctor a few days ago that I thought you were an orphan but he wanted to wait until you woke up before deciding anything. The thing is... we spoke about possibly, well-"

"We'd like to adopt you, Roy."

Roy stared in disbelief at the man and woman who were looking down at him lovingly. There was hope in their eyes but he didn't know what to do. They seemed nice enough, especially since they'd stayed with him while he was here in hospital, but could he do it? Could he really sever his ties with his previous family and allow this couple to become his new parents?

"Oh Roy, I'm sorry!" Inez said quickly, squeezing his hand tighter and leaning forward to stroke his hair with her other hand. He hadn't realised until she spoke that he had started crying. "We just want to protect you, please believe that!"

Roy closed his eyes, beginning to feel small shakes through his body as his tears slowly became sobs. If he said yes he would never see his real parents ever again. He would never see Kayli's smiling face ever again.

But if he said no he would end up being sent back home again and would find himself at risk, just like Inez had said. And he didn't think he would survive it a second time round.

"O-okay," he choked out through his tears, keeping his eyes closed. He didn't want to look at their faces any more.

"Roy, are you sure?" Inez asked, her grip firm but not painful on his hand.

Lifting the hand that was not being held by Inez, Roy rubbed at his eyes to try and get rid of his tears. He was surprised to find that rubbing his eyes hurt and there was some sort of bandage wrapped around his head. Opening his eyes again despite the new pain, he began to trail his hand across the rest of his face, feeling more bandages that he hadn't been aware of.

"Hey," Miel said cautiously. "Are you okay?"

"I don't think he knew how badly damaged he was," Inez whispered.

Breathing heavily, Roy put a lot of energy into tilting his head down so that he could look at his small body. He heard his heart-rate speed up on the monitor and did his best to keep himself from crying even more, now.

He was covered in bandages. They were everywhere. Sure, he had known the pain was really bad, but he hadn't thought it was _this_ bad.

"H-how long have I been here?" Roy asked, panicking slightly as he allowed his head to relax against the pillow again.

Inez and Miel shared a glance before Miel spoke. "Just over two weeks."

"Two weeks?" Roy asked, surprised.

"You were in a coma for most of it," Inez explained. "You only woke up again today."

Thinking it over, Roy reasoned in his mind that his being in a coma was why he had felt like he was finally getting better when he woke up today.

"Yes," he spoke suddenly and sharply.

"Yes what?" Inez asked quietly.

Roy swallowed, ignoring the fades burn in his throat as he turned his head to look over at the woman. She had wavy blonde hair that came down to her shoulders and bright blue eyes that stood out from her face.

"You can adopt me," Roy said nervously.

Inez sat back in her chair with a gasp while Miel leaned slightly closer.

"You're really sure about this?" he asked Roy seriously.

Roy blinked up at the man and then nodded once.

"Oh Roy," Inez gushed. "You'll never have to worry about being abused ever again. Miel, should I go get Owen?"

"That sounds like a good idea to me," Miel agreed before looking down at Roy with a smile on his face. "How would you like to meet your soon-to-be new younger brother?"

"My new...?" Roy trailed off, glancing over as Inez left the room. The door was left ajar but it wasn't long before it opened wide again, Inez walking back inside the room with a small boy trailing after her, clinging to her hand. The boy's hair was blond and thin, reminding Roy of Inez's hair.

"Roy," Inez said as she brought the small boy over beside the bed. "This is Owen. He's Miel's and my son."

The small boy reached a hand out, taking hold of Roy's hand and smiling widely up at him.

"Hello!" he said cheerfully.

"Hi," Roy replied quietly.


	3. Chapter 2

It was almost a month later when Roy was finally allowed to leave the hospital. His wounds had healed up, although they left a lot of very nasty scars in their place. The couple who had continued to visit him regularly, Inez and Miel, were taking him back to their home now that he had been officially adopted and the hospital had given them a free flight to where they lived.

"Have you ever been in a helicopter before, Roy?" Inez asked from where she was sitting beside him, smiling. Roy shook his head. "Well now you have! Can you see out the window alright?"

Roy shifted forward slightly and then nodded, his eyes fixed on the far-away ground out the window. It was incredible to be up so high and the experience was thankfully distracting him for the time being.

"Mummy," Owen called out from where he was sitting on his father's lap. "Is the new house big?"

Inez smiled and turned to look at him, beginning to describe the new house again for his benefit. Roy didn't know why, but the couple that had adopted him had also arranged to move house while he was still in hospital and they had found a nice place in Corel which they bought and had already moved their stuff into.

Leaning back in his seat again, Roy let out a quiet sigh as he continued to look out the part of the window that he could still see. It was all so beautiful and he wished Kayli could be with him to see it. She'd love this kind of view.

Before he had time to formulate any more thoughts he had fallen asleep and his head slipped to the side slightly before coming to a stop against Inez. She smiled down at him warmly and stroked some of his hair before simply allowing him to rest.

* * *

_ "You're taking me out? This is so awesome! Kayli, come on!" Roy said excitedly as Liam steered him out of the house._

_"No," Liam said loudly. "She's not coming."_

_ "Why can't I come?" Kayli asked sadly, staring up at Liam._

_ "Because you're a girl. We're going to go do man stuff," Liam said simply, shoving Roy into his car and then getting into the drivers seat._

_ Roy quickly moved to the window and stuck his head out, looking back to where Kayli was standing alone. "You can come next time, Kayli!" he said, glad that in the next moment she smiled back at him._

_ "Okay, just have fun. Tell me all about it when you get back!" Kayli said. Roy nodded and then Liam was driving the car away from the house so Roy pulled himself back inside the car. Sticking an arm out, he waved vigorously._

_ After a moment he pulled it back in as well and sat happily in the passenger seat beside Liam._

_ "Where are we going?" he asked._

_ "Shut up," Liam snapped._

_ Sinking down low in his seat, Roy pouted and folded his arms. He was a bit annoyed that Liam was still being rude to him, but at least they were going to have time to bond as brothers now! It was a shame Kayli couldn't have come, but Roy had to admit he loved the sound of 'doing man stuff'. He was sure it meant Liam considered him to be a man._

_ After a while longer of sitting silently in the car, Liam pulled up at a park that was next to a stream and got out. Roy quickly scrambled out as well and moved around to stand next to his brother, waiting to find out what they were going to be doing._

_ Liam started walking and Roy followed him, curious. There were hardly any people in the park and the only ones he could see were some scraggly male teenagers who were laughing noisily and being rough with each other. Roy frowned slightly, nervous when he saw that Liam was heading towards them._

_ "Hey, it's Liam!" one of them called out, seeing them approaching. "Who's the kid?"_

_ "This is Roy," Liam said as he reached them, glancing back at Roy who tried to look brave in front of them all._

_ "Your kid brother? Why'd you bring him?"_

_ Liam looked into Roy's eyes for a moment before allowing a smirk to cross his face and looking up at his friends again._

_ "It's time we taught this brat a lesson."

* * *

_

Inez gently shook Roy awake, smiling as she then helped him off the helicopter and onto solid ground.

"We're here," she told him.

Miel and Owen came up to stand beside them and Roy glanced over just in time to see Owen pulling a face at him before the younger boy erupted into giggled and hid behind his father's leg.

"What's going on there, you two?" Miel asked with a laugh.

"Nothing," Owen said quickly, grinning innocently.

"Come on," Inez said. "Our house isn't too far from here."

Setting off, the four of them began walking through Corel in search of their new home. Roy felt nervous as they passed some people who would do a double-take and then widen their eyes in shock at what they saw.

Finally, they reached the house.

"Here we go," Miel said as he fished the keys out from his pocket and began unlocking the door. Roy took the opportunity to look behind him and saw a kid with shocking green hair standing on the lawn of the house opposite them, his mouth wide open in shock as he stared.

"Ma!" the boy practically screamed then, not moving and continuing to stare. A woman also with green hair quickly exited the house and rushed over to her son, looking around for what could be the reason for his scream. Spotting the new family and the boy that was also looking back at her, she hurriedly grabbed her son's shoulders and pushed him inside, slamming the door.

"Alright, everyone inside," Inez said a bit urgently once the door was open. She nudged Owen and Roy inside before she and Miel came in behind them and shut the door, switching on a light.

"Home sweet home," Miel said.

"Mummy?" Owen asked, tugging on Inez's skirt gently.

"Yes, sweetie?" she asked, looking down at him with a smile.

"Why did the boy across the road look so weirdly at us? And why did his mummy take him inside so fast?"

Inez hesitated, glancing at Roy.

"And why did they have green hair?" Owen added next.

With a smile, Inez said, "I don't know sweetie. Maybe they just really like the colour green?"

"Can I dye my hair, mummy?" Owen asked.

"Why would you want to do that?" Inez asked with a light laugh, stroking Owen's hair. "It's a lovely colour."

"I want to dye it black," he said fiercely. "To match Roy!"

Roy's head turned sharply to look at Owen, his green eyes wide in surprise. Owen wanted his hair to match his?

"Well," Inez said awkwardly, glancing at her husband briefly. "We'll see."

Heading through the rest of the house then, the four of them explored where all the rooms were and finally reached the bedrooms. There was a large room for Inez and Miel, plus two extra rooms.

"Roy," Miel said to him as they stood in the hall outside the two extra rooms. "We'd like to give you the choice of where you want to sleep. You can share a room with Owen or have your own room if you like."

"Please share with me!" Owen begged, grabbing Roy's hand. "I've never had an older brother before! Please, please, _please!_"

"Owen," Inez said softly. "Let him choose."

Owen fell silent but continued to fix Roy with his pleading gaze. Slowly, Roy pulled his hand out of Owen's and turned away slightly.

"I'd like to have my own room," he murmured.

"Okay," Inez said quickly before Owen could complain. "That's fine."

"That's not _fair _though," Owen whined as Miel showed Roy into one of the rooms. "I'll get so lonely!"

Inez rested a hand on Owen's head to try and comfort him, but he refused to stop pouting.

"Do we have any food in this house yet?" Owen asked in a mumble past his pout.

"Some, I think," Inez said. "Why?"

"I feel like cheese," Owen explained, looking up at his mother with wide eyes and his pout still in full use. "Please?"

"I'm not sure we have any cheese yet..." Inez trailed off and looked up as Miel and Roy exited the room again. "Miel, we should probably go shopping for food soon."

"That's a good idea," Miel nodded. "Do you want me to stay here with the kids or should we all go?"

"Oh can I come? Please?" Owen asked excitedly. "I'll be really good!"

Inez and Miel shared a look before Inez looked down at Owen and nodded with a smile.

"Would you like to come too, Roy?" Inez asked him. Roy looked up at her in surprise that he was being asked and then hesitated, thinking it over. Should he say yes? It would give him something to do, at least. "If you'd like to stay here and get some more rest that's fine, you know."

"I'll come," Roy said quietly.

"Yippee!" Owen exclaimed, rushing over and suddenly giving his new older brother a hug.

"Okay, come on," Inez said, unable to hide her amusement and happiness. She was glad that Owen was taking to Roy so well.

They headed outside and began walking along the path to where Miel knew the shops were located. Owen was staring around at everything with wide eyes, his hand gripping Inez's as he practically skipped along the path. Roy was silent and watched the world through lowered eyelids, nervous about being out in public in case they came across someone who wasn't very friendly.

However, they managed to get to the shops without incident. The most that had happened on the way was that people they passed had stared in shock and surprise as Roy's scarred face.

"Cheese, cheese, cheese!" Owen chanted as they entered one shop. Inez was smiling as she led her son through to find what he wanted. Roy followed them with Miel walking behind him and cautiously allowed his eyes to look at everything the shop was selling.

"Roy," Inez called back to him, making him look up. "Is there anything in particular you'd like me to get for you?"

Roy walked closer to her and then around at the food that surrounded them. He wasn't sure what he should ask for as nothing was really jumping out at him. There didn't seem to be anything he really _loved_ eating so eventually he settled for shrugging and Inez nodded with a smile.

"Maybe if there's a meal you can think of that you really like," Inez said to him as she collected some other things to buy. "I could see about getting that for you for dinner."

Roy's eyes suddenly lit up and he smiled, the movement feeling strange as he hadn't done it in such a long time. He felt the skin of his cheeks tighten but ignored it for the moment.

"I really like pizza," he said.

Inez looked back down at him and couldn't hide her surprise to see him smiling. She bent down so that she was his height and put her hands on his shoulders.

"Then we'll have pizza tonight, alright?" she asked him.

"Yeah," Roy nodded, the smile fading again. He looked down at the ground in embarrassment and Inez giggled lightly, ruffling his hair before straightening up again and continuing to collect the food they would need.

Once everything was collected and bought, they headed back out to go home again. Owen was trailing slightly behind the parents with a stick of cheese in his hands that Inez had found for him. He was nibbling it slowly, pure joy on his face.

"Want some?" he suddenly asked Roy, offering the cheese to his new brother.

"No thanks," Roy said quietly.

"Okay, all the more for me!" Owen giggled and continued nibbling the cheese.

Roy couldn't understand how anyone could be so happy all the time and watched Owen for a while as they headed back to the house. Owen always seemed to have a smile on his face and would always be fascinated by small things – such as a bird that flew by once and caused Owen to spin in a circle as he followed it with his eyes, almost dropping his cheese.

For some reason, Owen reminded Roy of Kayli.

Was Kayli alright? Was she, right now, spending time with Liam and having a lot of fun with her older brother?

"Are you crying?"

Roy stumbled slightly and looked up to see Owen's concerned face. It was a drastic change from the happiness he normally radiated.

"Um," Roy murmured, reaching a hand to feel his eyes and finding that they were indeed moist. "I guess."

"You don't have to be sad," Owen said. "I'm here! Come on, have some cheese! You'll feel better, I'm sure."

Owen broke off the bottom of his stick of cheese and passed it over to Roy, who cautiously took it and put it in his mouth, chewing it up. The slightly salty taste somehow _did_ make him feel a bit better and he felt himself relaxing slightly, much to the delight of Owen.

"Told you so!" he exclaimed.

"What's going on back there?" Miel asked jokingly, turning around to smile at the two boys.

"We're eating cheese!" Owen exclaimed with a bright smile, bouncing along beside Roy happily. "Can I have more when we get to the house?"

"Owen," Inez laughed. "We're practically there as it is and I let you have a whole stick of cheese already!"

"I know," Owen pouted. "But I gave some to Roy. So it wasn't really a whole stick after all!"

"Maybe later," Inez insisted, reaching the door to the house and pulling out a key she had to unlock it.

Once inside again, Inez and Miel decided they should begin unpacking their stuff to make the place look a lot homier. So they pulled out the boxes that had been stacked in one room and began opening them.

Owen tried to help as much as he could, but when it came to things like furniture all he could do was stand at the side with Roy and encourage his parents with words. He helped pull out the smaller things and put pictures up on the walls with some help.

But Roy shook his head when they asked if he wanted to join in. He stood at the side and observed the joyfulness of this family before him. They were so happy and loved each other so much. It was a painful reminder of the family he had left behind. His mother and father were just like these ones and Kayli was a lot like Owen.

After his and Owen's rooms had been decked out with bed linen and some toys, Roy stayed in his room and lay down on his bed. The rest of his new family went out to continue unpacking things in other rooms and he closed his eyes, picturing Kayli's face under his eyelids.

_"I can't believe we're already nine!"_

_ "Ten next year!"_

_ "I know! Double digits!"_

For a moment back at the hospital... he hadn't been so sure he was going to make it to his next birthday.

Before Roy knew it he had slipped into a comfortable, dreamless sleep and curled up on his side on the bed. His body needed the time to recuperate and continue to finish recovering. His wounds had healed, but he still needed to get his strength back.

It was a while later when Inez entered the room quietly, gently waking him up and softly telling him that the pizza they had ordered had arrived and it was time to eat. Roy pulled himself into a sitting position and rubbed his eyes sleepily before standing.

"I wanted to let you sleep longer," Inez told him as they moved to the door of the room. "But Owen was 'going mad with hunger'. That's what he said, at least."

Roy nodded in reply, feeling his own stomach grumble then. They walked down the hall towards the kitchen and Roy suddenly spotted a new mirror that had been put up on the wall. As he reached it he paused and gazed in at his reflection.

That... that was _him_?

He looked nothing like his old self! His face... Roy slowly trailed his fingers over the scars again, watching it happen in the mirror and unable to keep the horrified expression out of his green eyes. Maybe it really _was_ a good thing that he had allowed this new family to adopt him. What would Kayli say if she saw him now? With skin that was this scarred?

"Roy," Inez said softly from behind him, appearing in the mirror. "Are you okay?"

Dropping his hands to his sides and nodding, Roy look down at his feet awkwardly. He didn't want to appear very upset to her at all, but sometimes he just couldn't hide his horror.

He felt as though he had changed so much recently. Would Kayli even recognise him? Not only his face had changed, though, but also his own personality. What had happened to the Roy that would laugh and joke with Kayli? The Roy that was always wanting to play jokes on his parents just to see their reactions?

"It's okay," a young voice reached his ears and he looked up to see Owen extending a hand towards him, smiling. "I think you look pretty cool."

If he was back to his old self, Roy would have laughed at that comment. Especially if Kayli had said it to him. He would have said she was barking mad and then cuffed her on the back of the head jokingly, laughing the whole time.

As it was, he stayed silent and took Owen's hand, allowing the smaller boy to drag him out to the kitchen where the pizza boxes were sitting on the table, steaming hot.

"I hope you like it, Roy," Inez said as she sat down at the table and smiled at him.

"Thank you," Roy murmured, sliding into a chair next to Owen and staring at the boxes. This family was so loving, just like the one he had left behind.

But at least there was no psychopathic older brother he had to worry about in this one.

* * *

A/N: Hey guys! I have something **important** to say!

If you, my lovely readers of Roy+sequel, would like a Christmas story then I am offering to write one for you! Whoever asks will get one, although I'm not making any promises that they will all be out by Christmas day or even by the end of the year, haha XD But yes, I just wanted to offer it because you guys have been awesome, sticking with me throughout this story and encouraging me through reviews.

So if you would like a Christmas story I'd like you to send me a message with what you want it to be about. I prefer to write about things I know of, like FF7 or Harry Potter or another anime or something I've already written about, but if you REALLY REALLY want me to write about something else then we can talk it over and if you give me a lot of information about it or something, I'll see what I can do!

Just another thing, I won't write yaoi/yuri/explicit scenes/gore/blehblehbleh. Just message me and we'll work it out together =] And if you don't want a Christmas story that's fine too! I just wanted to give it as an option.

Also, don't forget for those people who suggested titles for this story that I'm giving you a free crack!fic about one of my OC's!


	4. Chapter 3

A/N: Another chapter! Could it be? Why yes, it could, and it is! I hope you like this one.

Before you dive in, I would just like to say that I am thoroughly enjoying this story. I never knew it would come so far when I first started writing about a girl trying to get into SOLDIER by pretending to be a guy. In all honesty, I had originally planned for it to just be a comedy with no real substance other than the main plot point. As I'm sure you're all well aware by now... that's not really how it is now... ^^;

But yes, thanks to everyone who's stuck with me from the beginning and those of you who have jumped in later for the ride. I love you all. Really ;P

Now this chapter was not as easy as others to write, but I'm proud of it. I think. Yeah. Kinda. Meh. It's my own writing so personally it could always be better in my opinion, but ANYWAY! Enough of my stupid rambling. I'm sure you all just wanna read the chapter, am I right? Yeah I thought so. Okay, fine, go ahead.

* * *

Roy thrashed, his sheet constricting his body and making him hyperventilate in fear. He was sweating all over and continued trying to break free to no avail. He was trapped, being strangled. He was drowning. He was _drowning!_

A scream left his throat and he found himself rolling onto the floor, still tangled up in his sheet. He couldn't stop the memories, images and feelings that flew through his mind and brought the past back to him vividly. He couldn't escape it.

"Stop it!" he screamed, tears now pouring down his face. "St-stop hurting me. Please. Somebody help-!"

"Roy!"

His eyes flew open and he continued to sob, leaning into Inez's arms as she reached for him, holding him close.

"P-please," he murmured urgently. "Get it off me!"

Inez hurriedly began pulling at the sheet, carefully and quickly removing it so that it could no longer frighten him and be a threat. Then she gathered him into her arms again and rocked back and forth gently, murmuring to him soothingly.

Ten minutes later, Roy had finally stopped crying and was sitting quietly in her arms.

"Are you going to be okay, now?" she asked gently.

Sniffing, Roy slowly lifted his head up.

"You're safe here," Inez continued. "I promise I will never let anyone hurt you again, okay?"

Roy nodded but still didn't speak. He wanted Kayli. Was she okay? What if Liam had lied and actually wanted to kill her as well? She could be...

"Cheese?"

Roy looked up, startled, to see Owen standing to the side and holding some cheese towards him.

"Not now, Owen," Inez said softly.

"But it'll make him feel better!" Owen protested. "It worked last time."

Inez fell silent then and watched Roy closely to see what he thought. Owen inched slightly closer and grinned when Roy met his gaze with his own eyes. There was silence, and then Roy reached out and took the cheese.

The grin on Owen's face grew in size at Roy's acceptance of his gift and he stepped back happily to watch his older brother eat.

"Owen," Inez said softly. "Please go back to bed now."

"How am I supposed to sleep when he's unhappy?" Owen asked sadly, already sulking towards the door.

"W-wait," Roy said in a half mumble, making Owen turn back eagerly. Inez looked down at Roy expectantly, waiting to hear what he had to say. "I don't... I don't wanna sleep alone any more."

"Oh mummy," Owen said excitedly. "Can he share my room? Please?_ Please_?"

"Well," Inez looked torn as she glanced from Owen to Roy. "There's only one bed in your room, Owen. I'm not sure if-"

"I don't mind," Roy spoke up quickly. He'd shared a bed before and anything was better than being alone again. The dark held nightmares when he was by himself, but when others were around it wasn't so bad.

"See?" Owen said happily.

"Well, alright," Inez nodded. "Come on then."

Helping Roy up, Inez lead him and Owen out of the room and across to Owen's room. Owen rushed over to his bed and pulled the covers back so that Roy could get in easier before standing back to let Roy go first. Inez watched with a smile as the two boys got in and pulled the covers up, lying comfortably. Roy's eyes were already drooping again, showing just how tired he was.

"Good night, boys," Inez said, bending over them to kiss them both on the forehead.

"Night mummy," Owen said, smiling at her before closing his eyes and trying to sleep. Roy mumbled something indistinct before rolling over to face the wall.

_"__Kayli, move over!"_

_"No, _you_ move over! I'm already on the edge!"_

_ "Liar! __There's all this space here, see?"_

_ Kayli giggled and tried to hide the space by draping the covers over it._

_ "No there isn't!"_

_ "_Mum!_ Kayli's-" Kayli quickly put a hand over Roy's mouth to shut him up, laughing hysterically as he pushed her away and began to laugh as well._

_ "Night Roy," Kayli said then, moving over to give him more room and closing her eyes._

_ "__Night Kayli," Roy replied, sighing loudly before sprawling across the bed and pretending to snore loudly._

_ Kayli burst into giggled again and tried to shove him away from her._

_ The two settled down very quickly when their parents entered the room __with stern expressions__.

* * *

_

The next morning brought with it a bright, sunny day. Roy had managed to sleep peacefully for the rest of the night and felt refreshed in the morning, although slightly sore at the same time. His face also felt incredibly tight as he got up and made his way to the breakfast table and he wondered whether he looked worse today than he had yesterday.

"Roy! You're awake!" Inez said cheerfully, gesturing for him to sit down at the table beside Owen who was already up.

"Hey big bro!" Owen greeted.

Roy sighed, slumping down into the seat. "Morning." He looked around for what he could choose to eat for breakfast and Inez quickly moved closer.

"Look," she said. "I'm not sure what you like to eat for breakfast so I have a range of different things. You can have toast if you'd like, or cereal, and I even have some bacon and eggs if you'd like that. Or you can have pancakes. So what sounds good?"

Roy looked down, suddenly swamped by the memory of making pancakes with Kayli. They used to have pancakes every weekend and had a lot of fun making them themselves, with their parents watching from the side.

He'd never really noticed it before now, but Liam was never in any of his good memories. His older brother had always been rebellious and hung out with friends at every opportunity. Why, if he was always so absent from their lives, had Roy been so inspired by him?

"I want pancakes," Owen said, standing up from his chair. "Can I? Please? I'll even make it myself!"

"Let Roy choose, please, Owen," Inez said quickly.

"Pancakes," Roy said with a small smile. "I'll help you, Owen."

Inez stared in surprise as Roy and Owen moved over to the bench, pulling out the pancake mix and beginning to prepare it. Miel walked into the room and she caught his eye, shaking her head slightly in disbelief before chuckling. It was a miracle that the two boys were getting along so well.

After a while, Roy turned to Inez and waited patiently, trying to get her attention. Looking up, she frowned.

"Is something wrong?"

"No," Roy shook his head. "I'm just not allowed to handle hot things without supervision."

Inez opened her mouth in wonder and quickly stood up, moving over to help Owen and Roy finish making their pancakes by cooking the mixture. Then the pancakes were loaded up onto plates and the boys were allowed to choose which topping they wanted.

It was just when they were all finishing up with breakfast when there was a knock on the door and Miel stood to open it.

"Yes? How can I help you?"

Roy craned his neck to see who was there and was surprised to see the lady with green hair from across the road. She was holding something in her hands but he couldn't quite make it out.

"Hi!" she said enthusiastically. "I'm Mrs Inks from across the road and I just came to welcome you to our neighbourhood! I made this for-"

The object in her hands began slipping as she held it towards Miel and before he had a chance to catch it, it slipped further and crashed onto the floor. Food spilled everywhere and Miel gasped as he stepped backwards.

"Oops," Mrs Inks said.

"Ah, don't worry about it. Thanks for the gesture, it was very kind of you," Miel said as he picked up the plate the food had been on and handed it back to her. "I'll get the rest of this cleaned up, don't worry."

"Hm," Mrs Inks responded. "That's good to know."

Glancing past Miel, she settled her eyes on Roy and frowned slightly. Her gaze made him instantly aware of the tightness of his face and he wished he'd taken the time to check what he looked like before coming to breakfast. He didn't want her to see him like this. He didn't want anyone to see him if he still looked the way he had yesterday.

"That's your son, right?" Mrs Inks asked, gesturing with her head to Roy. Miel glanced back before nodding.

"That's right," he confirmed.

"What happened to him?" she asked bluntly.

Inez moved forward to join her husband at the door and blocked Roy from Mrs Inks' view.

"It was an accident," she began nervously. "An... accident with a tractor."

"An accident with a tractor?" Mrs Inks asked dubiously.

"That's right," Miel nodded.

"You let a boy that young near a tractor?" Mrs Inks asked. "No wonder something bad happened! Anyway, I really have to go. Nice meeting you!"

Mrs Inks quickly bounded away towards her house and Miel and Inez stood there as she disappeared behind her door.

"So nice of her to leave us to clean this mess up by ourselves," Inez scoffed icily. "I'll go get something for it."

Miel nodded slowly and moved to help her, the two adults cleaning it up fairly quickly. They kept shooting glances back at Roy and it made him nervous as they were trying so hard to act like there was nothing wrong.

A tractor accident. He had a feeling he would have to stick to that story very firmly as he grew up in this family.

"Roy, sweetie," Inez said, moving over to him with a gentle smile. "How about you and Owen go to your room and play a game together?"

"What sort of game?" Roy asked, remembering all the times he had played with Kayli in the past.

"Owen has some toys I'm sure he'd like to show you," Inez said, smiling encouragingly at Owen as the younger boy jumped up and raced off quickly. "If he doesn't have anything that interests you we can go out later today to get you some things, okay?"

Roy nodded and got up from his seat, heading after Owen and reaching the boys' room. Entering, he saw Owen already pulling out a box full of toys.

"We're gonna have so much fun!" Owen said excitedly.

"Hey, um," Roy hesitated and Owen looked up at him anxiously, wondering whether the older boy was going to reject the offer to play. "Have you ever played hide and seek before?"

A grin appeared on Owen's face instantly and he quickly began nodding, shoving his box of toys away.

"I love hide and seek!" he exclaimed.

"Do you wanna play, then?" Roy asked. When Owen nodded again he laughed lightly. "Okay, do you want to hide or seek?"

"I'll hide! You'll never find me!" Owen squealed, jumping up from the floor and running to the door where he paused and looked back again. "You have to count to twenty, okay?"

"Okay," Roy nodded.

Owen disappeared out of the room then and Roy turned around, closing his eyes and beginning to count slowly. He could hear Owen's shrieks as he tried to find a hiding place quickly and shook his head slightly in amusement. Kayli had always been frantic whenever she tried to find a place to hide, as well.

"Seventeen, eighteen," Roy ran a hand lightly over his face as he counted, but quickly dropped it to his side again. "Nineteen, _twenty!_"

Opening his eyes, Roy quickly left the room and began to make his way around the house. Inez and Miel were still in the kitchen and seemed to be having a private conversation so he headed in the opposite direction. Finding a back door that led out to a small backyard, Roy smiled slightly and stepped out.

The yard was fairly empty with only a few trees at the side. It didn't look like Owen would have been able to hide out here, but Roy couldn't pass up the opportunity to do some quick exploring. So he walked around the yard and peered behind each tree, familiarising himself with the terrain and beginning to memorise it.

Finally going back to the door that led into the house, Roy went in without looking back.

It didn't take him long this time to find Owen hiding in a cupboard in the laundry. The younger boy had the advantage of being small enough to fit in places like that and again it reminded Roy of Kayli.

"You were supposed to take longer finding me!" Owen complained as he came out of the cupboard. "Alright, my turn to count! Try and find somewhere really difficult, okay? Quickly!" Giggling, Owen turned and put his head against the cupboard doors, his hands shielding his eyes as well as he began to count out loud.

Roy stumbled back as he realised Owen had already begun and then quickly ran from the room, searching for a hiding place as quickly as he could.

Maybe, just maybe he could get used to living here with this family.

* * *

It was a few days later when Roy was sitting on his bed in the room he shared with Owen. The bed he'd had in the other room before had been moved so that he and Owen no longer shared one and it was much better on really hot nights.

Inez and Miel had taken the boys shopping earlier in the day and Roy now had more clothes as well as some board games he'd liked the look of. He was reading the back of one box right now to try and get the rules in his head for whenever they were able to play it, and Owen was sitting across from him on his own bed with another of the board game boxes in front of him.

"You'll have to help me a lot," Owen said as he frowned down at the box. "I don't think we've ever played anything like this before. Are you sure it's fun?"

Roy looked over at which board game Owen was staring at and then nodded. "Yeah, it really is. And I will help you, don't worry."

Owen grinned at that and took the lid off the box, pulling out the different pieces and turning them over in his hands.

The two boys fell into a comfortable silence as they did their own thing and Roy was thankful for it. As much as he was starting to love Owen, he had also come to realise that the boy had endless questions about everything. It could be very, _very_ annoying.

Kayli hadn't been as annoying as Owen was.

Owen suddenly pushed the board game away from himself and stood up, leaving the room. Roy frowned for a moment but then shrugged it off, deciding it wasn't important as he continued to try and memorise the rules.

Owen's disappearance became shockingly important soon, however, as Roy suddenly heard Inez begin screeching at the boy from another room. What on earth was going on, Roy wondered?

Standing up and quickly moving out of his room, Roy found himself looking into the bathroom at the strangest sight ever. Inez was scrubbing at Owen's face roughly with a wet cloth and he was whining loudly, pushing against her.

"Don't you _ever_ do that again! You hear me?" Inez snapped.

"I just wanted to look like Roy!" Owen retaliated, squeezing his eyes shut as Inez rubbed the cloth over that area of his face. "He's got such cool scars, I wanted some too!"

"Don't you understand?" Inez hissed, much more quietly this time. Roy stepped back out of view and continued to listen closely to what was being said. "Roy has been through a lot! He doesn't need you constantly reminding him how different he is, okay? We need to support him and help him get over what happened. Those scars are a bad thing, Owen, so that's all he'll see if you go up to him with them painted onto your face."

"I just wanted to be like him..." Owen's reply came out slightly choked as the small boy began to cry and his mother finally stopped rubbing to pull him into a hug.

"I know, Owen," Inez said soothingly. "I know."

Roy backtracked away from the bathroom door, slowly tracing his way down the hallway. He felt like someone had thrown him in front of a truck. This family wanted to help him so badly, and Owen looked up to him so much.

How was this possible? How could a boy who hardly knew him think so highly of such a messed up individual? And how could these _strangers_ care so much about him to try and protect him so much?

Who was he?

"Kayli..."

Roy found himself stumbling out the back door and looking up at the trees that he recognised. They looked different through blurred eyes and he floundered towards the closest one, bracing his hands against it and then sagging down to sit beside it on the ground.

He closed his eyes and let the tears slip down his face, no longer caring about trying to keep himself together. He couldn't do it. He needed his real family back or he was never going to make it through another day.

What kind of a role model was he for Owen, anyway? A terrible one. He couldn't even protect his own blood-sister without running away. What would that teach Owen? The poor boy would never learn how to stand up for himself or others if Roy was the one he was trying to copy.

No. Roy did not want to be that kind of a role model. He had to change. If he was going to be staying with this family for a while he had to become the kind of role model that Inez and Miel would want for their true son.

There was one thing that could ensure that. One thing he could do that would make sure Inez and Miel were fine with him being Owen's role model. One thing that he could do which would turn him into the type of boy and then man that he wanted to become. One thing that would also give him the chance to go back and see if Kayli was still okay. One thing to give him enough power to protect her from anything that tried to hurt her.

Roy stood up and wiped his eyes quickly, sniffing back his tears and walking inside again. He sure didn't feel any different right now, but with time it would come. He could change himself and aim for the same goal he had been aiming for even while he was back in Junon with Kayli and his parents.

Nothing could stand in his way this time.

No one.


	5. Chapter 4

A/N: Hello again! Here I am, publishing chapter four for you all to read. I hope you enjoy it!

Anyway I would just like to say that I'm getting really excited because... in a couple chapters time (this is my guess anyway, from my planning) we will catch up to the Epi/Prologue stuff! What does that mean? WE'LL BE BACK AT SHINRA AGAIN! YAAAAAY! So just hang in there and keep reading this stuff about young Roy, because before long things will get REALLY interesting again! At least, I know _I_ am really excited about getting back to ShinRa again.

Soooo yeah. Booya.

* * *

Owen had a toy truck out and was rolling it along the grass out the front of their house, making noises with his mouth as it careened around crazily. Roy watched him in amusement, trying not to think about what was opposite them on the other side of the road.

The boy around Roy's age who had green hair was standing in the yard of his house as well, but instead of playing a game like Owen was doing he was just staring. Staring at Roy and not trying to mask his astonishment. That boy clearly had too much time on his hands.

"Vroooooooooom!" Owen continued, almost falling onto his back as he whirled the car around too fast for his own body to move.

Roy smiled and lay down on the grass, staring up at the sky and shielding his eyes slightly from the sun. He and Kayli had sometimes tried to make shapes out of the clouds they could see in the sky, but as Roy looked up that day all he could see was clouds. Boring, ordinary clouds that didn't remind him of anything else.

He was ten now. Double digits. His birthday had been a week ago on the seventeenth of October. He had been with his new family for almost a year.

"Ma," the boy from across the road called over his shoulder before tearing his eyes away from Roy in order to move over to the door and open it slightly, calling again. "Ma, can I call Jensen?"

Roy sat up curiously, wondering who 'Jensen' was. It was incredible that he had almost been here for a year and still didn't actually know the name of the boy with green hair, but for some reason the woman with green hair never said the boys name when outside and in earshot of Roy.

"Alright," came the faint voice of 'Ma' from inside the house. "But remember I've got a friend coming over today as well."

The green-haired boy suddenly tore through the partially open door and shrieked at his mother, saying something Roy couldn't understand. There was a light laugh in response and Roy heard a, 'Yes' before more shrieking ensued.

"He sounds really happy," Owen commented, looking up from his toy truck to stare at Roy, who nodded in agreement.

"I wonder what happened," Roy sighed.

"Maybe it's his birthday and he just forgot?" Owen giggled. Roy rolled his eyes and shook his head slightly, seriously doubting that.

Owen was now seven, and even cheekier than usual. Inez and Miel had taken to home-schooling both of them and Owen constantly came up with excuses to avoid doing his work. It was amusing, but when it went on for a long time it just got frustrating and Roy could completely relate to Inez and Miel's feelings of annoyance as they tried to make Owen concentrate.

Miel wasn't around as much any more, though, as he'd found a job in the area and spent his days working so that they had enough money.

The boy with green hair came outside again suddenly, holding a phone to his ear and staring right at Roy again.

"Yeah, so get here quick, okay?" he was saying into the phone.

"I think he's jealous," Owen whispered, startling Roy who hadn't known the younger boy was right behind him. "That's why he stares at you all the time. He wants to be like you!"

Roy didn't reply, simply continuing to return the green-haired boy's stare.

"You'll never believe who else is coming over, by the way. No, you'll just have to wait. You'll see when you get here."

The boy hung up the phone and continued staring at Roy a moment longer before going back inside the house.

"Is he having a party?" Owen asked suddenly, making Roy turn and look at him. "I mean, he's inviting people over. Should we ask if we can join in?"

"No," Roy said sharply. "I don't think he's having a party and if he was we wouldn't be welcome."

"Why not?" Owen pouted.

Roy pulled himself to his feet and dusted his trousers off, shrugging in response to Owen's question. He didn't want to make the boy too upset but didn't know what to tell him.

"I think I'll go see if Inez needs any help with painting," Roy said to change the subject. Inez and Miel had recently bought a new cupboard to keep books in and Inez had wanted to paint it before using it. She was outside with the cupboard, painting it white and adding black patterns here and there where she thought they looked good.

"I can do that!" Owen protested, also jumping up now and shaking his head at Roy to make him stay where he was. Then, beaming, Owen ran into the house and through to the backyard where his mother was.

Now Roy didn't know what to do. He didn't feel like playing any games and the idea of helping Inez had been the perfect way to end his boredom.

Turning his head, Roy let his gaze drift over the houses that lined the street. Just as his eyes reached the far houses he saw a boy running around a corner and down the path. Roy blinked in surprise. Was everyone who lived here as crazy as each other? This boy had dark blue hair that _couldn't_ be natural, could it?

When the boy got closer, Roy wondered whether it was Jensen, the boy who had been invited over to the house across the road. Soon enough, the green-haired boy appeared in the doorway again and the boy with blue hair stopped on the lawn, panting.

"Jinx," he panted. "Am I right in thinking that _he_ is coming over today?"

"Yep!" the green-haired boy, Jinx, nodded firmly. "Ma told me just before I called you. Do you think he'll remember me?"

"Are you kidding?" Jensen scoffed. "There is no way he's forgotten you since last time when you got cake in his hair!"

Jinx fell silent, going over the memory of his eighth birthday in his head.

"It wasn't my fault," he said after a moment. "I forgot I had cake on my hands."

"Even without the cake," Jensen pointed out. "I don't think he was too pleased about you yanking on his ponytail."

Jinx laughed and shrugged.

"Oh, um," Jensen leaned in closer to Jinx and whispered, "Who's the kid?"

"Ah," Jinx whispered back. "New family moved in with him last year when you were... away. They say he got in an accident with a tractor but-"

Jensen and Jinx both turned their heads to look at Roy slowly, surprised to find Roy staring right back at them.

"Isn't he scary?" Jinx whispered.

"Ya-huh," Jensen replied also in a whisper.

Roy folded his arms as he watched them, wondering how anyone could be so stupid as to talk about someone else while staring right at them. And they thought he was scary, did they?

"Boo!" Roy suddenly hissed at them, twisting his face into an expression that he wasn't even sure of and then laughing when the two boys across the road screamed and fought against each other to be the first inside the house.

"That's enough."

Roy jumped and turned to see Inez standing behind him, a frown on her face.

"I don't want you scaring them any more, okay?" she asked him.

"They were being rude! I just wanted them to stop staring at me, that's all," Roy said in defence.

"I don't care," Inez said sternly. "You're not to do that ever again."

Roy looked down at the ground and nodded, giving in. He understood where she was coming from, anyway, since it _had_ been cruel to scare them even more when they were already scared.

"Would you like to come and see the finished result?" Inez asked.

"The cupboard?" Roy asked, lifting his head again. Inez nodded and smiled, taking Roy's hand and leading him in through the door. They walked through to the back yard and Roy bent down beside the painted cupboard.

"Do you like it?" Inez asked.

"Yeah," Roy nodded. "It looks really good."

"Thank you," Inez grinned. "Owen came to help me a bit and I let him do the flower on the corner here." She pointed at the black painted flower and Roy allowed a small smile to appear on his face at the thought of Owen drawing it on.

"Where is he now?" Roy asked, as Owen was no longer outside.

"He offered to take the paints inside for me," Inez smiled. "He's so helpful."

Roy glanced over the cupboard again, thinking it was amazing that Inez had the skill to decorate it herself. It looked great.

"Miel should be home soon," Inez said as she looked down at her watch. "Any minute now, actually."

Miel and Inez had no problem with Roy calling them by their names instead of 'mum' or 'dad'. Roy had overheard them talking once about how they knew they could never replace his real parents and weren't even going to try to. They were his adopted parents, nothing more.

"Hey, I'm home!"

Inez smiled and moved around the cupboard, heading inside at the voice of Miel returning. Roy got up and followed, walking behind Inez as she made her way to the front room and hugged Miel.

But Roy was still in the corridor when that was happening, pausing as something caught his eye and then turning to stare into the bathroom through the open doorway. His eyes widened and he struggled to find words to say.

"Owen," he managed, resulting in the younger boy turning around and facing him, a huge grin on his face.

"Hey, Roy! Don't I look cool?"

Roy didn't know what to say. Owen had taken the paint inside, yes, but he had then proceeded to use the black paint on his hair. His natural blond hair was now completely covered in black.

_ "Can I dye my hair, mummy?"_

_ "Why would you want to do that? It's a lovely colour."_

_ "I want to dye it black, to match Roy!"_

"Roy," Inez called out, walking back into the corridor. "Miel's back-"

"Look, mummy!" Owen said as he saw her. "I dyed my hair to match Roy's!"

Inez's mouth had fallen open in surprise and when no one spoke for the next few minutes, Miel came over to see what was going on.

"Owen," he said sternly. "Wash that out of your hair right now."

"But I look like Roy now, don't I?" Owen asked, putting the paintbrush he had used down on the sink and frowning at his parents.

"Owen please," Inez said, stepping into the bathroom and preparing to wash the paint out of his hair herself if he didn't cooperate. "I thought you got over this."

"Got over what?" Owen snapped.

"Well..." Inez sighed. "This whole wanting to look like Roy, thing! What's wrong with just being yourself?"

"Roy's cooler than I am," Owen whimpered. "You like him more."

"What? No, that's not true!" Inez said quickly. "I love you both the same!"

"But you always give him treats," Owen went on. "And you're always comforting him but you _never_ comfort me!"

"Owen, I'm so sorry!" Inez said. Roy stepped back slightly as Miel moved past him into the bathroom as well and he sagged sadly as he heard Owen beginning to cry.

"Let's just get this out of your hair first," Miel said, turning on the tap. "Then we'll talk more about this problem, okay?"

Owen fell silent as his parents began the difficult task of washing the black paint out of his hair. Roy didn't know what to do and so stood motionless in the corridor, waiting. He couldn't believe Owen still wanted to be like him so much, but it made more sense to hear that the boy was jealous of his parent's love.

Was that how Liam had felt? Jealous because Kayli was always spending time with Roy and none with him? Was that all Roy would ever do? Make people feel left out and unloved by the people they most care about?

Ten minutes later Owen's hair was paint free and he had a towel around his shoulders to catch the last droplets of water. Miel and Inez steered him out to the living room and sat him down on the couch.

"Owen," Inez began. "Your father and I love you so much and nothing can change that. Roy cannot take your place as our true son, okay? You will always be our little treasure."

"But you yell at me," Owen whined.

"Do you know why?" Miel asked. When Owen ducked his head lower and didn't respond, Miel answered his own question. "Because you do things that are bad. You need to trust us to help you determine what is right and wrong, and avoiding your school work all the time is definitely wrong."

Roy disappeared into the room he shared with Owen, not wanting to hear any more of their talk as he felt like an intruder. Moving over to the window that looked out on the road, he was surprised to see a woman getting out of a car and being greeted by Mrs Inks warmly. Was this who Jinx had been talking about before?

In the next moment, a boy with red hair pulled into a ponytail cautiously peeked out of the car before slowly getting out and standing there with a frown on his face. A noise must have sounded because he tensed and rocked onto the balls of his feet, preparing himself for something. As Roy continued to watch, Jinx and Jensen raced from the house and Jinx tackled the redhead onto the ground.

At least, he _would_ have tackled the red-head onto the ground if the redhead hadn't been fully prepared and thrust a hand out at the last minute, causing Jinx to fall over backwards.

The woman that had come with the red-headed boy turned to scold him – at least that's what Roy thought she was doing – and then they began to move towards the house together. Just when the two women were about to go in, the one with red hair laughed and pulled Mrs Inks back around, pointing to the car they had exited.

Roy watched as a man got out of the car, a wide grin on his face. He had green hair and for some reason that gave Roy an inkling that this might just be Jinx's father. Mrs Inks promptly screamed and ran at him, pulling him into a hug and then kissing him.

Yep, definitely the father.

They went inside then and the door shut, leaving Roy to his own thoughts again. He walked over to his bed and sat down, staring at the floor.

He would never say this to Inez and Miel, but being left by himself was not a good idea. Whenever he was alone he found himself thinking back on the past and what had happened to result in him being here now. He thought about Kayli and Liam and his parents. He thought about the beach they had lived near. He thought about-

_"It's time we taught this brat a lesson."_

_ "Liam, what are you talking about?" Roy didn't understand._

_ "Come on boys," Liam laughed before spinning around to face Roy with an angry glare. "Let's show my little brother just how serious I am right now. Because I _am_ serious Roy. You're not going home again."_

Shuddering, he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to stop the memories that bombarded his mind.

It wasn't long before the door opened and Owen stepped in, looking really upset as he went over to his bed and sat on the edge like Roy.

"You're so lucky, Roy," Owen sighed quietly.

Roy snorted.

"No, I'm serious!" Owen said, looking up at him. "Mum and Dad think you're the coolest ever and they always buy you whatever you want. But _I'm_ stuck with everything I already have, plus whatever you don't want."

Roy was silent for a moment, considering what he could say to his younger brother. He didn't want Owen to grow up always being sour about him.

"Your parents love you," he said after a few minutes. "They love you so much."

"So? They love you too," Owen shrugged dejectedly.

"If they didn't love me I wouldn't be here any more," Roy nodded. "But doesn't that just give you more of a reason to be happy about it? You do want me as a brother, don't you?"

_Say no._

"Of course I do!" Owen exclaimed. "I _love_ you being my brother! You're so cool, and I wanna be just like you. But whenever I try to be like you I get in trouble. It's so annoying! It's like Mum and Dad only want you and they don't think anyone can compare."

"That's not true," Roy snapped. "They just want you to be yourself! Being yourself is better than being anyone else, do you understand me?"

Owen frowned at him silently before speaking. "How do you know that?" he asked cautiously. "How do you know that being myself is better?"

"I wanted to be like someone once," Roy murmured. "I really did. But not any more."

Owen watched him in silence, enraptured by what Roy was saying to him.

"I thought he was the coolest person in the world," Roy went on. "But he never paid any attention to me and I should have noticed something was wrong. Owen, just be yourself. No one else is worth it."

"What happened?" Owen whispered. "What made you realise?"

Roy slowly lifted his gaze from the floor and stared across at Owen, not speaking for a while and allowing the silence to ring loudly in their ears. Every time he blinked he could feel his skin tightening.

"My scars," he spoke finally.

Owen sucked in a breath deeply, whispering, "Mum says they're a bad thing."

"She's right," Roy said with a tremble. "It hurt when it happened."

"That must've been _some_ tractor ride!" Owen said with a shake of his head. Roy frowned slightly before looking away, keeping silent. "Do you want cheese now?"

"No," Roy shook his head. "I'm okay."

"You sure?" Owen probed, unsure when he should stop pestering his brother.

The ten-year-old didn't reply and they lapsed into a silence, the only sounds being from outside and somewhere else in the house where their parents were.

Roy's mind was in turmoil. Things would be so much easier if Owen didn't look up to him so much, but there was nothing he could do to change that. Nothing at all, unless... Unless telling him the truth somehow changed things.

But not the truth of Roy's scars. Telling Owen about that while Owen was still only seven years old would do nothing but give him nightmares and frighten him more than a boy of his age ever should be.

Roy was thinking about telling Owen the truth of his own feelings and how he felt about the whole situation. The truth about why he had mentally wished Owen would say no to wanting him as a brother. The truth about his own wants that he tried to keep bottled up inside because he still wasn't sure what was the right thing to do.

"Owen," he murmured. "I want to go home."

Owen's innocent face crinkled in confusion and he said, "But you _are_ home. What do you mean?"

Roy narrowed his eyes and clenched his hands into fists, unable to understand why he was feeling so angry just because Owen didn't know what he meant. He tried to force himself to breathe slowly, successfully pushing his anger away.

"My real home, Owen," he said after a moment once he had calmed down. "The home I grew up in before the accident and before your parents found me."

The confusion on Owen's face quickly changed to anxiety and the boy stood from his bed, moving over to sit beside Roy.

"You don't like it here?" he asked quietly.

"I do," Roy replied softly. "But I miss my real parents."

"What about my parents? They love you!" Owen exclaimed.

"I know," Roy said with a frown. "I love them too, Owen, I do. But I love my real parents more."

Owen looked torn and didn't know what to say. Roy contemplated saying more to the boy but had no idea _what_ to say, so he remained silent. It was better that he simply tell the truth, anyway. Owen would have to come terms with it.

The younger boy slowly stood up after a moment, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion before he walked over to the door and quietly left the room.

Roy stared after him for a moment wondering if he had offended him too badly, before whispering, "That's why you shouldn't be like me. I'm not worth it."


	6. Chapter 5

A/N: Hey everyone! Another chapter so soon! I'm so excited to get back to ShinRa that I just started writing faster. So yeah.

Also! This chapter, in my opinion, contains very very VERY exciting stuff! You learn something new and I hope it'll just make you enjoy my story even more! But yes, other than that... I don't think there's much I wanted to say this time.

But, seriously, don't you just LOVE Owen! ? Okay maybe I should have said that at the bottom... haha ;P

* * *

_He couldn't see anything past the blood that streamed over his eyes and he hurt too much to call for help. Everything around him was so quiet and all he could really hear was the sound of his struggled breathing. Even that, though, would sometimes cease for a few minutes as it was too difficult to keep up the whole time._

_ Was this it? Was this how everything would end?_

_ He had water in his lungs, he knew, from when Liam had held him under. That was partially why he was having so much difficulty breathing now. He could feel the water sloshing over his legs still as he lay where he was. Liam had left him half in the lake when he bolted._

_ After another moment, Roy suddenly realised that he could hear something other than his breathing. Voices. Had Liam come back to finish him off? He thought he should feel frightened at that possibility, but he didn't. On the contrary he felt relieved. He just wanted the pain to be over._

_ He was disappointed, though, when he heard a woman's voice. It obviously wasn't Liam, then. Was it his mother instead? Had she come to find him and rescue him?_

_ A siren pierced the silence and more voices surrounded him, making his head pound. Something touched him and he screamed in pain, his throat tearing at the effort it took to make such a noise. It felt like he was on fire, and as he continued to scream some water suddenly bubbled up from his lungs and spilled over, making him cough and splutter. It felt like acid on his skin and he screamed again._

_ They were moving him. He only realised when he felt more things touching him and his legs left the water they had been laying in. He tried to fight them off and make them stop but they ignored him. They tried to shush him._

_ "I don't know, I don't know! Just get him to a hospital, _please_!"_

_ Too loud. It hurt. He was crying again._

_ Screaming, choking and thrashing as he was lain on something else, Roy finally succumbed to sleep. His heart flat-lined.

* * *

_

Normally, Roy would have absolutely no problem with sitting outside next to Owen, who was rattling on excitedly about ShinRa and SOLDIERs. But today was different. Roy was fourteen now and at the moment he just felt like being alone.

"But I _really_ wanna meet Sephiroth! He looks so cool, you know?" Owen had a ShinRa magazine open on his lap and was poring over it excitedly. He'd gotten it for his eleventh birthday a week ago and hadn't been able to put it down since. He even stayed up late at night with a torch, hiding under his covers to read everything again and again.

Roy flexed his fingers, frowning. He felt so strange. What was wrong with him today?

"Do you think I could ever be like that?" Owen asked, looking up at Roy suddenly and flicking some of his blond hair away from his eyes.

"Like what?" Roy asked.

"A hero! I bet only certain types of people can do it, though. They'd have to be really self-disciplined and caring, as well as really strong! And they'd have to know how to handle themselves around people who admire them. Imagine if Sephiroth walked into Corel right now!" Owen continued to gush and turned back to the magazine as he chattered away.

For the past few years he had been growing more and more obsessed with everything to do with ShinRa. Ever since he'd seen something on the news about SOLDIERs being sent to Wutai to fight in the war he hadn't stopped researching them. The Wutai war was over now, but Owen had found out that there were still strong rebellion groups which needed to be stopped.

Roy stretched slightly and gazed across at the house across the road. It seemed so empty nowadays, ever since the day Jinx had gone off to join the ShinRa infantry. Unfortunately, hearing that a neighbour had left to go to ShinRa only encouraged Owen even more.

"Even if I never become as great as Sephiroth," Owen was saying. "I think I'd like to give it a try. What about you? Will you come with me to ShinRa?"

Sighing and deciding to finally give in and allow Owen to dream even bigger, Roy said, "Sure."

To his surprise, Owen's response was nothing like he expected. The younger boy's mouth fell open in shock as he looked up at his brother, eyes as wide as saucers. Roy frowned at him, wondering why he was so surprised when it was what he'd wanted.

"A-are you sure?" Owen stammered. "I mean, we might not even get in! What if we're not good enough? Well I'm sure _you'd_ be good enough, but what about me? Oh my gosh, I don't think I'd ever be able to handle it if I went all the way to Midgar only to be rejected!"

Roy tuned Owen out, groaning and looking away as he realised Owen was afraid of rejection. The poor boy wanted it so much but didn't know whether it was worth it to go out on a limb and take such a risk.

Roy had often considered telling Owen of his dream to join ShinRa as well, ever since the boy became fascinated with it, but for some reason he just couldn't bring himself to do it. It felt like he was keeping a dirty secret from his family although he knew that to be incorrect. Obviously it wasn't a bad thing as Owen's parents thought it was _great_ how much enthusiasm he was showing towards ShinRa and SOLDIER.

So what was the problem?

_"__ShinRa is _evil_, you hear me? _Evil!_ I can't believe you would ever consider joining them. Such scum."_

Liam had hated ShinRa with every fibre of his being. That much had been obvious in the way he moved and spoke about it. Roy closed his eyes momentarily as the memory came back to him and he pushed it away roughly. With Owen beside him he couldn't afford to let the past take hold.

The front door opened behind the two boys and Roy turned to look over his shoulder, seeing Inez walking out and over to them. She was smiling as she sat down on the other side of Owen and glanced down at his magazine.

"Do you think I'd be good enough for SOLDIER, Mum?" Owen asked immediately.

"Why not?" she said, ruffling his hair. "We can talk about it more when you're older, though."

"Yeah..." Owen turned a page in his magazine and bit his lip. "Roy said he'd come with me when I go."

Inez glanced over at Roy with a slight frown on her face but she continued to smile.

"Really, Roy? I didn't know you wanted to become a SOLDIER, too," she said to him curiously.

"Someone's gotta be there to make sure Owen doesn't stuff up," Roy joked. He didn't find it amusing, though. Instead, his insides were curling angrily and he felt like throttling something. What was _wrong_ with him? These feelings had begun to build over the years, starting out so small that they were nothing to be concerned with. But now?

"And who better to do that than my big brother?" Owen agreed happily, not upset at all that Roy had hinted he would stuff up.

"Well, come inside soon," Inez said as she stood again. "We can all eat lunch together then."

"Yeah, we'll come in a bit," Owen nodded, eyes still focused on his magazine. "I love you, Mum!"

Inez smiled warmly and replied with, "I love you too, both of you, my beautiful sons."

Turning and heading inside, Inez shut the door behind her and left the boys alone once again. Owen was _still_ happily reading everything in his magazine over and over, but Roy was staring across the road listlessly.

His hands were clenched into fists as they sat on the grass on either side of him. He was angrier than he had been before and it was all because of something that Inez had said before going inside. She had called him her son. He _was_ her son, in a way, part of his mind tried to tell him, but Roy ignored it and clenched his teeth together instead.

The _nerve_ of some people. He still had real parents! Living, breathing, somewhere-out-there parents who loved him and probably worried about him every day! Was he meant to just forget all about them and accept his situation? Did Inez and Miel want him to look on the bright side and just be thankful he was still _alive_?

"Be honest, though," Owen said seriously, looking up at him again and holding the magazine tightly in his hands. "Would I be good enough to be a SOLDIER?"

"Owen," Roy growled out, closing his eyes and pushing down on the new overwhelming desires he was feeling. "Not now."

"I'm serious!" Owen snapped. "Yes or no?"

Opening his eyes again, Roy flicked his eyes over to Owen with a glare. "I said not now. Leave me alone."

"Gaia, Roy," Owen whined. "I was just asking for your opinion. Can't you just tell me if-?"

Owen's sentence was stopped suddenly as Roy's fist connected with his mouth and sent him sprawling onto his back. Drawing his arm back sharply, Roy prepared to punch Owen again when the younger boy screamed shrilly, spitting blood from his mouth and scrambling away quickly, tears streaming from his eyes already.

"Boys? What happened?"

Inez's voice sounded from inside and Roy heard her footsteps getting closer, but he couldn't stop. He tried to. He held his fist still as it hovered in the air above Owen, but then a yell left his own mouth as he brought it down again, hitting the boys jaw and sending his head slamming into the ground sideways.

Hands grabbed his arms and pulled him backwards as a female voice screamed at him angrily. He couldn't see anything any more as he was completely lost to his desires and he felt a laugh bubbling with in him.

When he came to his senses again, he was on the couch. Miel stood in front of him with his arms folded and a stern expression on his face, simply staring. Why was the man back from work so early? Had Inez called and told him about what happened?

No need to ask, Roy thought to himself, it was obvious that was true.

After a moment Inez brought Owen into the room from the bathroom, holding him firmly as he was still crying. He had a wad of tissues pressed against his mouth to soak up blood and there was a huge bruise on his jaw from where Roy had hit him a second time.

"I'm taking him now," Inez said quietly to Miel, who nodded but didn't take his eyes off Roy. She then proceeded to walk Owen outside and Roy heard the sound of car doors before the engine started and they drove away. Roy assumed they were going to the nearest hospital.

"Would you care to explain what exactly happened to make you hit your brother just now?" Miel asked angrily.

Roy felt the word 'brother' slam into him and his eyes widened slightly. All faint traces of anger and blood-lust left his system quickly and he found himself trembling in horror. He had hit Owen. Twice. Owen was going to hospital. It was all his fault.

"I-I'm sorry!" he blubbered.

Miel appeared stumped, not knowing what to do next. Taking a deep breath he repeated, "What happened, Roy?"

"He-he wouldn't shut up. I just wanted to be left alone and then... I don't know why I did it! I couldn't control it! I tried to stop, I did! Please believe me. I'm so sorry. Is he gonna be okay? I didn't mean to-"

Roy's throat closed up and he crumbled into a sobbing mess, covering his face with his hands as he cried. He loved Owen, so why on earth had he hit him?

"Your mother told me that when she found you over Owen you were laughing," Miel said darkly. "Care to explain?"

"I-I don't know! I don't know what made me do it. It just- it just felt so..." Roy trailed off and swallowed the word he had been about to say. _...good._ He had a feeling that wouldn't go down so well with Miel if he spoke it out loud. He himself couldn't even understand how it could be true, but it was. For some strange, irrational reason, he had enjoyed hitting Owen. It felt good. He wanted to do it again.

No. No, he didn't.

Roy's inner turmoil must have somehow been visible on his face because Miel finally sighed heavily and sat down on a chair across from him. Putting his head in his hands, Miel tried to breathe calmly.

Lifting his head again after a few moments of silence, he met Roy's gaze steadily.

"We'll talk more about this when your mother gets back with Owen, alright?" he said.

Roy nodded and remained quiet. He felt dirty. Probably because he had blood on his hands. Owen's blood. From when he had punched his mouth.

"Just... go to your room," Miel hissed after another moment. He had turned away again and looked disgusted, so Roy slowly stood and made his way to his room before Miel could do or say anything else.

Even though they weren't his real parents, Roy didn't want to disappoint Miel and Inez as they were the ones who had saved him. There was a bright side after all.

Now Roy just hoped he would be able to remember it.

* * *

When Inez returned with Owen, the boy wasn't crying any more. Roy was still in his room and didn't move as he heard his adopted parents talking quietly. He still felt terrible about what had happened and kept looking down at his hands, seeing the blood. The hand he had used to punch had also started hurting after a while and now it was a constant ache.

The door opened and Miel looked in.

"You can come out again, now," he said. "We'd like to talk to you some more."

Roy slowly stood and made his way out of the room, watching Owen sadly as the younger boy headed into the room, eyes fixed on the ground.

Miel sat Roy down on the couch again and this time he and Inez both stood before him, tensed expressions staring down at him in disappointment, confusion and anger. Roy wasn't surprised.

"You say you couldn't help it," Miel began cautiously and Roy nodded in agreement. "But everything is a choice, Roy. You could have chosen not to get angry with Owen even though he wasn't leaving you alone. Or you could have asked him to leave you alone for a bit."

"But I told you," Roy piped up. "I tried to stop and it didn't work!"

"How did you try to stop?" Miel asked.

"Well... I-I tried to put my hand down but it wouldn't move."

Miel and Inez glanced at each other with frowns on both their faces. It was obvious they didn't believe him.

Stepping slightly closer to her husband, Inez murmured quietly, "We should take him to the doctor. Maybe it's an effect from what happened to him."

"Yeah, okay," Miel agreed. "It's the least we can do, I suppose."

Roy watched them in confusion. An effect from what happened to him? What were they talking about? The only thing that had happened to him which he could think of right now was the event that caused them to find him and adopt him. But-

Roy's eyes widened.

He was acting like Liam.

"Come on, Roy," Inez said to him. "Go wash your hands and then meet me out at the car. I'm taking you to the doctor to get you checked out. Do _not_ go anywhere near Owen right now, you hear me?"

Roy narrowed his eyes slightly but nodded, heading to the bathroom to wash the blood off his hands and then going outside to get in the car. Miel shut the door of the house behind him and then it was just Roy and Inez as they drove off.

"I'm sorry," Roy whispered again as they drove. Inez didn't reply, her whole body still tense as they made their way to the doctors office. Even when they were parked she didn't say anything, simply gesturing for him to get out and follow her.

When they were inside, Inez spoke to the receptionist before sitting down on one of the chairs that were there in the waiting room. Roy sat beside her nervously, feeling as though he was literally on thin ice. Thankfully it wasn't much longer before they were sent through to the doctor.

"Hello, how can I help you?" the doctor asked with a smile.

"What I tell you today," Inez began slowly. "Cannot be repeated. Do I have your word that it will be kept secret?"

The doctor leant back slightly in his chair and then nodded. Inez bit her lip nervously, glanced at Roy, and then began explaining the day when she had found him.

"I didn't think they were related at all, at first," she explained after recounting the story. "But when I got closer to them I heard Roy screaming that brothers were supposed to look after each other, not..."

"I understand," the doctor said, seeing that Inez didn't know how to finish that sentence. "So, do you think Roy still had some internal damage that hasn't entirely healed yet?"

"What?" Inez frowned. "No! That's not it at all! It's just... Liam was his brother. They were related by blood and... and today Roy attacked my son."

There was silence for a moment as that sunk in.

"But then, my husband and I were also thinking that maybe it's just a coping mechanism? Maybe Roy feels like he has to hurt people because he was hurt so badly, and he chose to hurt Owen because he was his younger brother and Liam was his older brother. Does that make sense?"

"That's not true!" Roy snapped angrily. "I didn't want to hurt him! I'm sorry, okay? I just... I couldn't stop myself!"

The doctor studied Roy with his eyes, folding his arms and remaining silent for what felt like a long time. Roy was nervous as he wondered what was going through the man's mind, but didn't speak. Instead he just returned the gaze evenly and forced himself not to back down.

"Mrs...?"

"Toulson."

"Mrs Toulson," the doctor said. "May I speak to Roy in private for a few minutes?"

Inez looked hesitant, but finally nodded and left the room. She shut the door behind her and then the doctor gestured for Roy to sit down on a soft chair that was in the room.

"So, Roy," the doctor began. "How old are you?"

"Fourteen," Roy replied.

"And what's your relationship like with your brother Owen?" came the next question.

"It's fine. I love hanging out with him."

"Okay, good," the doctor nodded. "Now can you tell me exactly how you felt when you attacked him? I'm not going to judge you, Roy."

"What are you, a counsellor?" Roy asked with a slight scoff.

"No, Roy, I'm not," the doctor said honestly. "But I need to know this in order to diagnose you properly. See, from what I've heard so far I think you have a genetic disorder. But I need to know how you felt in order to know whether I'm right or not."

Roy sighed and folded his arms, looking down.

"At first I just felt angry. Then... it was like I _had_ to hurt him. Like if I didn't I was gonna go mad."

"And when you were attacking him," the doctor said softly. "When you saw him in pain how did you feel?"

Roy didn't speak for a moment. He could feel himself trembling.

"It's okay, just be honest."

"...I felt good."

The doctor grunted in response and then turned to his desk, writing something down on a piece of paper he had there.

"Tell your mother she can come back in now, please," he said to Roy, who frowned but stood and went over to the door, opening it and calling Inez back inside.

"Well?" she asked immediately.

"I'm just writing down the name of a counsellor who I think will be able to help your son out. Unfortunately he's all the way over in Midgar, but he does sometimes do counselling sessions over the phone and I think he'll be more than happy to help with your situation. You see, I believe your son has inherited a genetic disorder called PSD – Paroxysmal Sadist Disorder." The doctor passed Inez the piece of paper with the counsellors details on it and then went on. "This is an extremely rare disorder that causes the affected person to experience sporadic urges of malicious intent, but with help from a counsellor I'm certain you will be able to keep a hold on it."

"So that's it?" Inez asked. "He just needs to talk to a counsellor?"

"Well," the doctor frowned. "I'm fairly certain there are pills one can take to battle the urges brought on by the disorder, but I've never actually dealt with a case like this before. Ring the counsellor, though, and I'm sure he'll have more information for you."

"Thank you so much," Inez said with a sigh, glancing over at Roy and managing a smile. "It sounds pretty easy to control."

"Hopefully it will be," the doctor agreed. "Just make sure you call the counsellor as soon as possible."

Inez thanked him again and then lead Roy from the doctors office and back to their car that was parked outside. They got in and drove off, with Inez barely able to contain her happiness. She was so glad that there was a proper explanation for Roy's behaviour and couldn't wait to tell Miel about it. They would call the counsellor that very same day and begin curing Roy of his illness. Things would go back to normal.

Roy was silent as he sat in the passenger seat of the car and stared down at his hands. He wasn't about to tell anyone this, but he felt even dirtier than he had before. He had just found out he shared the same disorder that Liam had. The doctor hadn't specifically said that, but he knew. Liam had PSD as well.

As they pulled up to the house, Roy was unable to shake the feeling from himself. He was polluted. How could talking to a counsellor help him? Surely there was nothing anyone could do to help him? After all, Liam had almost committed murder because of the disorder.

As Roy walked numbly into the house, he silently resigned himself to the very same fate.

* * *

A/N: Please, please, PLEASE review! Owen will give you a cookie if you do!


	7. Chapter 6

A/N: IT'S WHAT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR- almost.

Okay, first off I have to warn you of something. This chapter goes from scene to scene about... 3 times? 4 times? I dunno, but anyway, it's the passing of time and I feel like it's a bit clunky and stuff but I couldn't figure out how to make it smoother without taking longer and wasting time with random crap that doesn't need to be in the story anyway. So.

The NEXT chapter will be back at SHINRA BABY! Who's excited? I AM!

And uhh... I'm really pumped because my new best friend on deviantart, Neko, has been drawing my characters! So if you would like to see Kayli and Roy, plus a little bit of Owen, go to the following links!

h t t p : / / kuroi-nekko-chan . deviantart . com/art/FF7-Roy-Roy-Peters-193387973

h t t p : / / kuroi-nekko-chan . deviantart . com/art/FF7-Roy-Kayli-quot-Roy-quot-Peters-193379993

Enjoy! x

Oh one more **important** thing! I forgot to mention in the last chapter that PSD is a made-up disorder. It is my own creation =]

* * *

Balancing a straightening iron in one hand, a brush in the other and a phone wedged in between her ear and shoulder, Gemma stared at her comical reflection in the mirror with pursed lips as she continued to do her hair. She had already finished straightening most of it but the ends were still kicking up so she was working at making them stay straight.

"Come on, pick up," she murmured as she waited for her call to be put through. She had dialled ShinRa and now just had to wait for someone to notice the phone was ringing.

"ShinRa Electric Power Company, Sally Speaking, how may I help you?"

Finally, Gemma heard a response. She paused in doing her hair and smiled, having time to only _begin_ saying, "Hello," when she was interrupted. Just as she expected.

"Might I be able to interest you in a position as a secretary here in the heart of ShinRa? Places are limited but the pay is excellent. If you are a people person and enjoy doing a bit of filing every now and again, this job is for you! If you enjoy talking on the phone, this job is for you! I _know_ you want to be a secretary, just say yes!"

"Yes," Gemma laughed into the phone, carefully putting her straightening iron and hair brush down so that she could hold the phone properly again. The voice of Sally on the other end had ceased and Gemma could imagine the shock she must be feeling at finally having found someone who wanted to be a secretary.

"Ma'am, you're saying you want to work as a secretary?" Sally asked slowly and cautiously after a while.

"That's right," Gemma agreed. "What are the hours like?"

"Oh," Sally sounded flustered. "You'll be working from seven in the morning until three in the afternoon. Are you sure you want to become a secretary?"

"One minute you're sounding really excited about me becoming a secretary and then you're asking if I'm sure? Trust me, I'm absolutely one hundred percent certain. Now, what can you tell me about the pay?"

Gemma continued to question Sally about the job of a secretary until she knew everything she wanted to know. Then it was Sally's turn, who promptly asked for Gemma's name and address.

"And uh," Gemma heard Sally shuffling some papers around. "What is your current age?"

"Sixteen," Gemma replied smoothly. "That doesn't matter, does it?"

"No, no!" Sally assured her quickly. "Sixteen is the perfect age. I should ask, however, how are you at dealing with flirtatious men?"

Gemma smiled and sat back in her chair. "I am _excellent_ at dealing with flirtatious men. I am also excellent at _flirting_ with flirtatious men. Just don't tell my boyfriend. Does that answer your question?"

Sally laughed. "Yes, thanks. Well, to me it sounds like you're an excellent applicant and I'll have your details sent off immediately to President Shinra. Now I know that sounds scary, but relax! I'm sure he'll accept you into the program. Would you like me to give you a call once the decision has been made?"

"I'd love that, thanks so much!" Gemma said enthusiastically.

"Alright then, thank you for applying to become a secretary in the heart of ShinRa and good luck to you!"

Gemma hung up and put the phone on her desk, returning to doing her hair again. Sighing, the smiled. She had successfully applied to become a secretary at ShinRa.

Ever since she had first called ShinRa when she was fourteen and experienced the dedication almost every secretary had to giving away their job, the idea had been steadily growing in the back of her mind. Now had seemed like the perfect time to secure a position for herself and she had known exactly what to do.

Finishing with her hair and walking out of her room, Gemma made her way out the back to find Pup, calling him over and giving him a pat.

"How would you like to go for a walk, hey?" she asked him, squatting down so that she was more level with the fully grown dog. "When we come back I might even let you watch some more TV if you behave yourself."

Pup wagged his tail excitedly and Gemma grinned, grabbing his lead before clipping it onto his collar and then walking him out onto the path.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with you when I go to ShinRa," Gemma murmured. "But I'm sure you'll be fine."

* * *

Roy clutched the edge of the sink tightly with one hand, his other hand clenched into a fist with two small pills inside it. He had locked the bathroom door when he got in there that morning because he could feel the beginnings of an unexplainable anger and didn't want to risk hurting anyone, but now that he had the pills out he couldn't seem to finish the job.

Two years. It had been two years since he first started having counselling sessions over the phone to help him be in control of his PSD. Two years since he had started taking pills to counteract his urges.

And he didn't care about _any_ of it when he got like this.

Breaths coming out as shuddering gasps, Roy closed his eyes tightly. It was no wonder Liam had almost killed him if he had the same problem. This feeling... it was impossible to control! Besides, he didn't even _want_ to control it any more. He wanted to let it use him. He wanted to hurt someone-

"Roy?"

Roy gripped the sink even tighter when he heard Owen's voice coming through the door. He was just sane enough to be glad that he _had_ locked the door and that Owen couldn't just come waltzing in.

"Roy, you can do it," Owen continued through the door. "For Kayli, remember?"

Roy's hand shook as his eyes widened, his mind bringing forth an image of Kayli's smiling face. Kayli. He had to be strong for Kayli. It was the difference between him and Liam because he was actually going to fight the PSD.

Still breathing shakily, Roy managed to slowly lift his fist up towards him mouth, opening his hand and shoving the pills in before swallowing them. Then he sank onto the floor of the bathroom and let go of the sink, closing his eyes.

"Did you do it?" came Owen's gentle, questioning voice.

Taking a deep breath, Roy said, "Yeah," keeping his eyes closed as he did.

"So I'll see you out here for breakfast soon?" Owen asked.

"That's right," Roy murmured. "I'll try- try not to be long."

"Take your time," Owen replied firmly. "We don't want you coming out too soon, do we?"

Roy nodded even though Owen couldn't see it and then went back to resting. Owen was right. If he came out too soon when his pills hadn't been able to fully take effect yet he could still do a lot of damage to his family.

He was so glad now that he had chosen to tell Owen about Kayli the year before. It seemed that the thought of protecting her was the one thing that could calm him down enough to think clearly again.

* * *

"I really_, really_ wanna go!" Owen exclaimed, clasping his hands together in front of his face as he stared into his mothers eyes pleadingly. "You _know_ I can do it! I'll be the greatest SOLDIER that ever lived!"

"Owen... how do I know you're not going to change your mind again, come tomorrow?" Inez asked him with a slight frown.

"I won't! I promise!" Owen said far too quickly.

"Alright, fine," Inez sighed. "But we're not organising anything until tomorrow morning, alright? I'd like to wait and see if you still want to go even when everything's happening."

"Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!" Owen flung his arms around his mother and hugged her tightly before turning to look at Roy, who was standing at the back of the room with a slight smirk on his face and had his arms folded.

Roy had decided two weeks previously that now was the time to finally live out his dream of going to ShinRa and becoming a SOLDIER. He was seventeen now and had had plenty of time to think everything over.

His motives were simple. Even though eight years had gone by since he had last seen Kayli he was certain she was still alive. They were twins, and Roy felt as though he had a sixth sense telling him that she was okay. So he wanted to become a SOLDIER in order to one day return to Junon and find Kayli, protecting her from Liam.

As well as that, Roy thought that becoming a SOLDIER and being able to kill monsters on a regular basis may be able to help him with his PSD.

"You don't have to go just because _I'm_ going," Roy said to Owen. "You could always wait another year just to see if it's really what you want."

"No," Owen shook his head. "I wanna go with _you! _Besides, I'm the one who showed interest in ShinRa in the first place!"

Roy smirked wider and looked down, choosing not to argue any further with his younger brother. It was true, Owen had been the first to show interest in ShinRa while Roy had been around, but Roy had first been enthralled by the idea of becoming a SOLDIER when he was still with Kayli and the rest of his real family in Junon.

"Well, boys," Inez said to them both. "Just remember to be sensible. And I expect you to call me every week, Owen!"

"Oh, come on!" Owen complained, immediately beginning to complain about how embarrassing it would be to have to call his mother while at ShinRa.

Roy shook his head in amusement and headed over to the window, gazing outside calmly and finding himself looking at the house across the road again. Last year Mrs Inks had tried to blow up their letter box and would have succeeded if Roy didn't find the explosive first, only having just enough time to throw it into the middle of the road before it went off. She was a very ruthless woman alright, because she was also very frightened of what she didn't understand.

Remembering the day when he had seen Jinx return in an infantryman uniform along with someone else, Roy wondered whether he would see the boy at ShinRa. If so, would they ever have to interact with each other, and what would happen if they did? Jinx had always taken after his mother in the way that he was terrified of Roy.

"Hey, Roy," Owen said, coming up behind his brother as he was finished talking to Inez – she had won the argument, forcing him to promise that if he did get accepted into ShinRa he would call her every week. "Wanna come help me pack? I don't know what to take."

"You won't need much," Roy said with a slight frown. "Just the necessities."

Nevertheless, Roy followed Owen into the room that they still shared and helped the boy choose the bare minimum to pack into a bag and take.

"Right, so the aim is to pack as little as possible because otherwise we'll be hefting a lot of weight around, yes?" Owen asked Roy as he finished stuffing the last thing in his bag.

"Yeah," Roy nodded.

"Then I'm all set! How 'bout you?" Owen dropped his bag and turned to his brother with an excited smile.

"I packed my bag days ago, remember?" Roy said, pointing to where his bag was on the floor at the foot of his bed. "You just haven't packed until now because you kept chickening out."

"Whatever," Owen laughed. "I won't chicken out again."

"Yeah, we'll see," Roy muttered under his breath, leaving the room again.

Owen chased after him, laughing, and was about to tackle him to the ground when he noticed Roy had clenched his hands into fists and was wincing.

"Ah, you okay?" Owen asked cautiously, backing away slowly.

"Yeah, it's just... strong," Roy replied quietly.

"I hope it settles down before tomorrow," Owen said thoughtfully. "Having you on a train like this isn't the best idea in the world."

Roy nodded but didn't verbalise a response, focusing on pushing away the urges he was feeling. He had taken his pills that morning but every now and again there would come a day when they just didn't seem to be enough.

"At least you'll be able to see Mr Auld in person tomorrow," Owen reminded Roy, talking about Roy's counsellor, Justin Auld.

When Roy had told Mr Auld he was coming to Midgar, the man had been very agreeable to the idea as it presented the opportunity for them to finally meet properly. Mr Auld had also agreed that becoming a SOLDIER might help with Roy's PSD urges.

"Want me to get Mum?" Owen offered cautiously as Roy moved over to sit down, holding his head in his hands.

"It's okay," Roy murmured. "It'll pass."

"Well... alright," Owen said, biting his lip. "I'll uh- I'll just wait in the room. Mm hmm. You stay here as long as you want. Awesome. Cool. See ya!" Owen turned and ran into his room, shutting the door firmly to make sure Roy wouldn't come in until he was calm again.

Letting out a sigh, Roy focused his thoughts onto Kayli. She was seventeen now, just like him. He wondered what she looked like. Had she let her hair grow out long like she always wanted to? What was she doing, now? Working somewhere? Furthering her education?

He just hoped she was happy. That was all that mattered.

* * *

"Oh my gosh we're going to be_ late_!" Owen screamed as he leapt out of the car and began running towards the train. Roy grabbed his bag and got out as well, turning to smile at Inez and Miel who had taken the time to drive them there.

"Thanks," he said sincerely. "It means a lot."

"No problem," Inez replied. "Have fun and stay safe!"

"We will," Roy assured them both. "And don't worry, I'll make sure Owen stays out of trouble."

Inez and Miel chuckled and then Roy turned away again, heading after Owen towards the train and boarding it.

"Where's Mum and Dad?" Owen asked, pressing up against a window and looking for his parents.

"They just left," Roy said, glancing over his shoulder and seeing their car drive away.

"Oh my gosh," Owen gasped. The train doors still hadn't closed yet and he was now staring out them. Roy frowned.

"Did you forget something?"

"No but-" Owen bit his lip and glanced over at Roy anxiously. "What if- what if I don't get accepted? What if I'm not good enough?"

"Owen, you said you weren't gonna chicken out again," Roy pointed out in annoyance. He just wanted to get to Midgar without any problems so that he could finally, after eight years of waiting, begin his journey of becoming a SOLDIER.

"I know, and I really thought I wouldn't but... what if I see Sephiroth? What if he sees me? What if he sees me get rejected?" Owen gushed.

Roy slowly nodded, deciding that if this was going to happen it may as well happen sooner rather than later. Besides, another train leaving for Midgar came every ten minutes. Owen would be fine.

"See you, then."

"Are you telling me to get off the train and go home? Didn't you just see? Mum and Dad left!" Owen exclaimed.

"You're obviously not ready yet," Roy shrugged. "But it's your choice, really."

Owen stood silently and nervously for a minute, not knowing what to do. He was torn between going to ShinRa just so that he could see it and going back home so that he would never have to face the possibility of rejection.

"Alright," Owen stammered. "C-call me when you get there!"

Jumping off the train, he spun around to watch as the doors closed a second later. There was no changing his mind now.

"Bye, Roy!" Owen yelled loudly, waving as the train began moving forward. Roy waved back but stayed silent, eventually turning his eyes to watch the scenery flash past the train as they picked up speed.

Soon enough he would be in Midgar, making his way towards the ShinRa building so that he could apply to the infantry and work his way up to be a SOLDIER.

When he got to Midgar, he would need to pick up some more pills from a pharmacist before he went any further. He could already feel the beginnings of his urges coming back again and knew that they would be a lot stronger when he got to the main city.

He didn't want to hurt anyone, he wanted to protect. He'd always just wanted to protect.

_I want to become a SOLDIER so that I can save people who need to be saved._


	8. Chapter 7

A/N: We now return to ShinRa, although something else needs to be explained before we dive straight in. That is why I have added a teensy little flashback at the top.

Now, in these next few chapters which you will read, changes that have happened within the two years from the previous story will become known. Some I'm sure you will like. Others... I'm quite worried about your reactions to.

Nevertheless, I am going to allow you to continue reading without any further ado. Enjoy =]

* * *

_Owen paced back and forth on the platform, unable to come to a proper decision. He didn't want Roy to go to ShinRa without him as he was currently doing, but could he really risk rejection by going as well?_

_ Ten minutes went by. Another train pulled up._

_ "Graaaaaaaahhhhh!" Owen growled to himself, pulling at his hair in indecisiveness. Did he get on? Did he not?_

_ Finally, in a burst of energy, he leapt through the doors and found himself a seat, sitting down quickly and clutching his bag to himself tightly. He couldn't change his mind now. This was it._

_ Looking across and out the window as the train began making its journey towards Midgar, Owen couldn't help the excitement that continued to build within him. He was going to become a SOLDIER.

* * *

_

"Is this our room, Roy?" Owen asked as he and his brother stood outside a door. He glanced back down at the card with his room number on it and then shrugged. "It must be, I guess. It's the right number."

"Then it probably is, yeah," Roy nodded in agreement, about to reach forward and open the door when it was flung open and a man who looked only one year older than Roy stood there with a frown on his face. His body was still half-turned into the room so he hadn't noticed Roy and Owen yet.

"If you lot ever send me on a wild goose chase again," the man threatened the others in the room angrily. "I'll make sure your time here at ShinRa becomes _much_ more difficult than it already is."

The man turned to face forward then, and his eyes widened as he saw Owen and Roy standing there.

"Sorry, can I help you?" he asked, stepping out of the room and closing the door behind him.

"Well," Owen glanced up at Roy and then faced the man again. The two brothers had by now realised they were speaking to a Third Class SOLDIER. "Th-this is our room, I think."

"Oh!" the man said, beginning to smile. "You guys are new?"

"That's right," Roy said a bit coldly, folding his arms.

"I'm Davis Taison," the man introduced himself, ignoring Roy's slight attitude and extending his hand for either of them to take. "Third Class SOLDIER."

Owen grabbed the hand and shook it firmly. "Owen Toulson, Sir. This is my brother Roy."

Davis nodded and then almost turned his hand to Roy, deciding not to when he noticed the unimpressed look that was still on the boys face. He hesitated then, taking in the scars on Roy's face and appearing to contemplate them. Then he lightly shook his head as if telling himself not to be stupid.

Roy didn't know why, but he already didn't like Davis. Everything about him seemed to grate on Roy's nerves yet he couldn't put his finger on a proper reason. Maybe it was because he had been threatening his subordinates when they first saw him, but Roy doubted that. Whatever it was, he couldn't ignore it and it seemed to be igniting his PSD.

"Well, I hope you settle into ShinRa okay," Davis said. "It's too bad you're rooming with these guys. They're absolute trouble makers. Try not to let them pull you to the dark side, alright?" Chuckling, he then began to walk off.

Once he was out of earshot, Owen turned to Roy eagerly.

"We just spoke to a SOLDIER!" he exclaimed. "Isn't that awesome?"

"It's brilliant," Roy snapped. "Just get inside the room."

Owen raised an eyebrow but decided to let it slide, facing the door and knocking quickly before turning the handle.

There were three boys in the room, all huddled in a circle on the floor with smirks on their faces that suggested they were scheming something particularly evil. Roy had no doubt at all that what Davis had said about them was true.

"What do _you _want?" one of the boys, a redhead, asked sharply. "We're in the middle of something."

"Say hello to your new room-mates," Roy said, striding into the room and dumping his bag on an empty bed. The boys seemed to notice his face then and they all gasped, whispering amongst themselves.

"I ain't roomin' with _that_!" one of them finally spoke up, a blond.

"You've got no choice," Roy retorted with narrowed eyes. "So you'd better start getting used to it."

"Roy, are you okay?" Owen asked quietly, beginning to wonder whether Roy's disorder was making him talk like this. His brother ignored him and turned back to his bag so that he wouldn't have to face anyone.

"Well if we have to _get used to it_, as you put it," the third boy, also a red-head, stood up. "We may as well get to know each other. I'm Grain Emer. This is Charlie Masie," he pointed to the other red-head. "And Meeth Chaman," he pointed to the blond.

"I'm Owen Toulson," Owen introduced himself. "This is my brother, Roy."

"Yer brothers?" Meeth asked. He had a distinctly different accent that neither Roy nor Owen could place.

"Yeah," Roy nodded. "We are."

"Ya don' look like each other at all," Meeth frowned, sizing them up.

"Well, we're not _blood_ brothers-" Owen began, but stopped when Roy shot him a look. "Never mind."

"How old are you, anyway?" Grain asked.

"He's fourteen," Roy said. "I'm seventeen."

"Hm," Grain said thoughtfully, tilting his head to the side. "And why are you only joining now? I mean, normally people join at his or our age. Fourteen, fifteen."

"I had a lot to think about," Roy said.

"What, so ya were thinkin' fer two years?" Meeth laughed loudly. Roy stared at him, letting his eyes bore into the boy until he had successfully made him nervous. Meeth shifted awkwardly and looked down at his feet.

"You know," Charlie spoke up suddenly. "Owen, was it? You look like Meeth. Don't you think so, Grain?"

"Yeah! You're right!" Grain agreed, eyes widening as he looked between Owen and Meeth a few times. "They could be twins! Except... Owen's got this weird bit of hair..." Grain began gesturing at the top and front part of his own hair to show what he was talking about on Owen. Everyone fixed their eyes on Owen and he shifted nervously, well aware of what his hair did. There was a part towards the front which stuck up no matter how hard he tried to make it sit flat.

"W-well," Owen stammered. "Look at his hair! It sticks up at the back like a duck's butt!"

"No it don't!" Meeth defended himself angrily, covering the back of his head with his hands.

Roy turned away from the younger boys who began arguing heatedly and escaped out of the door silently. He was sure Owen would be fine and would make friends with them in no time at all, but he himself needed to find somewhere secluded where he could concentrate. Owen had been right in thinking that something was wrong with him and he didn't want to be around anyone when it _really_ kicked in.

* * *

Gemma was in a bit of a daze when her best friend Kayli arrived at her reception desk. She looked up and shook her head slightly, trying to make herself think clearly again. But how was she supposed to do that when she had just signed 'Roy Peters' into ShinRa?

"-never _believe_ what he did today. Honestly, he is the bane of my existence. I don't understand how he thinks he can get away with the way he talks to me! I _know_ he's deliberately trying to get on my nerves but what am I supposed to do? Tell _Sephiroth_? The General practically stopped talking to me ever since I got into SOLDIER."

Gemma nodded vaguely, her own thoughts still tumbling around in her mind. She _knew_ Roy was dead. There was no way he had come back after what had happened to him. And this guy that had just arrived with scarring on his face? Total coincidence. It had to be. Roy was _dead_.

"I have to go and see my counsellor today, as well," Kayli sighed, leaning on Gemma's desk with a sigh. "He'll probably tell me to-"

The phone on Gemma's desk suddenly began ringing and both girls jumped slightly.

"Um, sorry," Gemma apologised to Kayli as she picked up the phone and answered it. "ShinRa Electric Power Company, Gemma speaking, how may I help you?"

A tinny voice answered her, "Hey, baby, your shift finishes soon doesn't it?"

"Yeah, in about twenty minutes," Gemma confirmed, a smile appearing on her lips. Kayli rolled her eyes.

"Want me to come meet you so we can go somewhere? I have this afternoon off."

"Yeah, that sounds great!" Gemma agreed. "I'll look forward to it."

"Alright, bye Gem! Love you!"

"Love you too, Rex," Gemma replied. "See you soon!"

Hanging up the phone, Gemma looked back at Kayli, who was watching her with a raised eyebrow.

"So today is an 'on' day?" Kayli asked curiously.

"Hey, _every_ day is an 'on' day!" Gemma snapped teasingly. "Sometimes we just have small arguments over some things..."

"Yes, because screaming matches over the phone can be classed as 'small arguments'. Hm. More like 'huge arguments which would normally result in a couple breaking up'." Kayli pointed out with a smirk.

"Whatever," Gemma poked her tongue out. "That just shows that our love is stronger than the average couple. It _must_ be true love!"

"Well I sure hope it is," Kayli said. "For both your sakes."

Gemma smiled her appreciation and then looked down at her hands. Should she tell Kayli about the Roy that had arrived today anyway? Even though it wasn't her twin brother? Or would that just be pointless, needlessly making Kayli freak out?

"Kayli-"

"Oh, look who's _he-re_!" Kayli said in a singsong voice, facing away from Gemma and watching a SOLDIER enter the room and make his way over towards them.

"Hey Kayli," he said, stopping in front of her. "You ready for our practise session?"

"I sure am!" Kayli agreed with a nod before turning back to Gemma and happily saying, "I'll see you later, alright? I'm gonna go practise my lovely sword skills with my wonderful boyfriend!"

"Yeah, okay," Gemma sighed, nodding and waving a hand lazily as Kayli skipped off with her SOLDIER.

If she did end up telling Kayli, it would have to be later. Right now was definitely not the time since she was far too caught up in her own life right now. Gemma still wasn't entirely convinced she _should_ tell Kayli, however, as it couldn't be the real Roy Peters. It had to be a simple coincidence and worrying Kayli about it was a stupid idea.

So Gemma turned back to her work for the last twenty minutes of her shift on the receptionist desk and did her best to push the mysterious new Infantryman out of her mind.

It was a good thing she did, because soon enough Rex turned up with a happy smile, leaning towards her across the reception desk and gently kissing her. She practically melted in her chair, but quickly stood up and walked around the desk so that she could stand beside her boyfriend.

"Hey," she said, biting her lip.

"Where do you want to go?" Rex asked, slowly taking hold of Gemma's left hand with his right. She squeezed gently and they shared a silent moment.

"Um," Gemma looked away from him so that she could concentrate on answering the question. "I don't mind really. Anywhere is fine with me."

Another girl walked up and took a seat behind the desk, nodding to Gemma and getting to work. Gemma and Rex both smiled, beginning to walk towards the doors to outside as they both tried to think of something they might be able to do together.

"Where's Kayli?" Rex asked after a moment.

"Where do you think? She went to practise her sword skills with her 'wonderful boyfriend' as she's calling him now," Gemma said with a slight shake of her head.

Rex chuckled. "And he's actually okay with that? I mean... he doesn't strike me as the type to enjoy being called 'wonderful'."

"Yeah, I dunno," Gemma shrugged. "He's changed a lot these past two years."

Rex nodded in agreement and they fell silent, just continuing to walk along casually, enjoying each others company. Gemma was about to suggest something they could do when Rex's PHS went off and he let go of her hand in order to pull it out of his pocket.

"Hello?"

Gemma hoped desperately it wasn't Reno, Rex's Turk mentor.

"Are you serious?" Rex said into the phone.

He glanced sideways at Gemma apologetically and she smiled at him to show she didn't mind. She now knew it was Reno, probably calling to tell Rex they'd forgotten to do something which was really important.

"Yeah, okay," Rex said with a sigh, looking down at the ground. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

Putting his PHS away, Rex turned to Gemma and braced himself. But this time, she didn't get angry.

"It's okay," she said with a shrug. "Maybe we can do something tomorrow?"

"Reno's been trying to organise for me to be able to go on this top priority mission for a while now and it's finally been approved. I'll probably get back late tomorrow or early the day after," Rex informed Gemma sadly.

"It's okay," Gemma said with a smile. "Just go show everyone how good you are at being a Turk, alright?"

Rex nodded and ducked his head down quickly, kissing Gemma once more before he jogged back to the doors leading into ShinRa and disappeared through them. Gemma let out a sigh and continued walking away from the building. She was happy for Rex. If he showed himself to be an excellent Turk on a top priority mission then ShinRa would pay for him to have a prosthetic arm. This could be his big chance.

It was just a bit lonely being the only one in their group of friends who wasn't rising through the ranks at ShinRa, but at least she was working in the same building as them.

* * *

Owen clutched his sides in laughter, lying on his back on the floor of the room. Charlie had collapsed into laughter as well, although his laugh was a mixture between a snort and a hiccup, which only succeeded in amusing Owen even more.

Charlie, Grain and Meeth had just recounted the tale of how they had sent Third Class SOLDIER Davis Taison on a wild goose chase, searching for a 'missing Infantryman' who didn't even actually exist. They had sworn that a boy named 'Bert Control' slept in the bed at the back of their room and that they hadn't seen him for two days. Davis had, apparently, been looking for him for that same amount of time ever since they told him, until he realised that day that they had lied to him.

"He fell for it _so_ bad!" Grain laughed. Charlie was still laughing too hard to speak.

"He is s-so gullible!" Meeth managed to say between his own sobbing laughs.

Owen rolled onto his stomach and covered his mouth with his hands, trying to calm himself down. Finally he managed to get calm enough to she could speak.

"D-did he realise you'd lied before or a-after he'd said the name aloud a million times?" Owen asked. Of course, the name 'Bert Control' was a pun name, sounding a lot like 'birth control' when it was spoken aloud.

"_After!_" Charlie squealed, snorting again, then hiccuping.

The four boys continued laughing hard, unable to make themselves stop as they kept thinking about why they were laughing, then laughing harder because it was so funny. The fact that Charlie's laughs would sometimes become louder only made the situation funnier for all of them.

Owen was glad he'd been put in this room. The boys he was rooming with were really fun to be around and he was sure that Davis was probably just some stupid, up-tight SOLDIER who always tried to stop people from having fun. Either that or he was just annoyed he'd been conned by three Infantrymen.

He wondered when Roy would be back, too. He had noticed his brother leave before but didn't say anything because he knew that Roy needed lots of time to himself nowadays. He hopes the older boy wouldn't be out _too_ late, because even though Owen had made new friends he still thought he'd feel more comfortable with Roy around.

"So, Owen," Meeth said. "What's up with yer brother?"

Owen looked up at the other blond boy, suddenly realising that they had all somehow ceased laughing while he'd been thinking.

"Roy?" Owen asked.

"Ya don't have another brother, do ya?" Meeth asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No..."

"Then o'course I mean him!" Meeth laughed. "So tell, what's up with him?"

"Um," Owen looked around at the three interested face before him, wondering what he should tell them. Roy wouldn't mind, would he? "He had an accident with a tractor when he was young."

"Really?" Grain asked, surprised. "Ouch."

"Yeah," Owen nodded. "He says it was really painful."

"And yet he still goes out in public?" Charlie snorted quietly. "With a face like that, I'd hide myself away forever!"

"It's not that bad," Owen quickly defended Roy. "I think the scars are pretty cool!"

"Well yeah," Meeth nodded. "I wouldn't mind gettin' a few scars while here, but what he's got is _over_kill."

Owen frowned and looked down, not knowing what to say.

Thankfully, he didn't have to think of anything as the door suddenly opened and Roy stepped in.

"Boys," Roy nodded at them, moving over to his bag and reaching in for something, popping something small into his mouth so fast that none of the curious boys had time to see what it was.

"Roy!" Owen exclaimed. "Did you hear what these guys did to that SOLDIER, Davis?"

"No," Roy said. "What did they do?"

Owen quickly recounted the story with some help from the other boys, and thankfully they didn't all burst out laughing this time. A corner of Roy's mouth turned up in amusement as he thought of Davis' being embarrassed saying 'Bert Control' out loud when he finally realised what had happened. He still didn't know why he didn't like Davis, but he didn't spend a minute wondering about it as he enjoyed the thought of Davis' misfortune.

"Come on," Roy said to the boys then. "It's probably about time for dinner, am I right?"

"Yeah," Grain nodded. "We should get going so we're not late and miss out on it."

So Roy, Owen, Grain, Charlie and Meeth left their room and made their way to the cafeteria for dinner. Owen told Roy other things about his three new friends on the way there, excited to tell his big brother what he had discovered.

When they reached the large room and walked inside, they instantly became part of a large crowd of infantrymen, lower class SOLDIERs and a few Turks.

"Oh this is brilliant," Owen whispered, eyes wide as he took in all that he could.

They slowly began making their way towards the food, but suddenly Owen found himself being pulled backwards and to the side by Meeth.

"Wha-?" he asked, looking around.

A man with a green Mohawk had just entered the room looking _very_ sour indeed. He marched forward, put his hands on his hips and yelled, "Out of the way, Grunts!"

If they hadn't already moved, they did then.

"Why, that's-" Owen began saying to Meeth quietly.

"Sergeant Jinx," Meeth interrupted him.

Charlie leant over to Owen and said, "He's always grumpy and hard working because he's been here for like, three years and still hasn't made it into the Turk program."

"Yeah," Grain nodded, watching as Jinx got himself some food and then stalked over to a seat. "If there's one thing you should do while you're here it's stay out of his way. I just hope you're not put into his squad."

Owen nodded silently and gulped, surprised at the harsh expression on Jinx's face and hoping desperately that he never crossed paths with him. It was one encounter he did not want to find out the outcome of. Even in Corel the two of them had never spoken much at all, and Jinx had never liked Roy much so Owen automatically didn't like Jinx.

The four of them then moved over to get their own food and Owen soon became engrossed in another conversation with them, not noticing that Roy had left their group and was sitting by himself at the other side of the room.

It was a good decision to join ShinRa after all, Owen thought to himself, despite the fact that there were mean Sergeants.

* * *

A/N: Review? =]


	9. Chapter 8

A/N: Eeek another chapter! This one reveals a secret which you will probably kill me for but THAT'S OKAY! lol

Um.. just read... =]

* * *

Gemma bit her lip and glanced around the room, making sure she wasn't being watched too closely by anyone. Then she focused her attention back onto the computer screen on the desk in front of her and she frowned slightly. She had just called up the information on 'Roy Peters' in order to do a little bit more research on him as she still wasn't entirely convinced, but she wasn't sure what she was hoping to find.

So. He was the same age as Kayli. That didn't mean anything. Gemma shook her head lightly, trying to make herself believe what she was telling herself. But then her eyes moved further down the information sheet he'd filled out the first day they met.

His birthday was the seventeenth of October. Not only was he the same age as Kayli, he was _exactly _the same age as Kayli!

Same hair colour, same eye colour, same birthday, same name and same scars.

"Hey, Gemma? Can I talk to you?"

Shrieking and hurriedly minimising the document, she looked up to see Davis leaning on her desk slightly.

"What is it?" she asked cautiously, then gasped. "You've seen him haven't you?"

Davis was stumped. "Seen who?"

"Um," Gemma said eloquently before shaking her head and smiling. "Nothing, no one. Never mind. What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well," Davis pushed away from the desk and folded his arms. "Have you spoken to Kayli lately?"

"Of _course_ I've spoken to her lately! I'm her best friend," Gemma exclaimed with a slight shake of her head and a roll of her eyes. "She was telling me about you just yesterday in fact. Is that what you'd like to hear?"

"What did she say?" Davis asked, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"That you were the bane of her existence and she's gonna tell Sephiroth. No, wait, she's _not_ going to tell Sephiroth because he stopped talking to her. Anyway, then she and Nareau went to practise sword skills," Gemma shrugged.

"The bane of her existence?" Davis frowned. "I'm just trying to be her friend!"

"I know, Davis," Gemma replied with a sigh. "I just don't think she really wants your friendship right now."

"Yeah, 'cause she's got Nareau," Davis scoffed. "Does that guy actually do anything except sleep all day?"

"Hey! He's changed a lot these past two years!" Gemma defended.

Davis walked away from the desk and ran a hand through his hair in frustration before turning back and leaning on the desk again. "I'm not trying to get her back, I just want to be her friend. Can you tell her that?"

"Davis..." Gemma rubbed her forehead. "The only way you're gonna get through to her is not through me. You need to start treating her the way she wants to be treated and you know that. Is it really that hard to do?"

"I'm _trying_ to treat her the way-"

"Then give her some space! You're suffocating her!" Gemma snapped.

Davis clenched his teeth together and looked away, remaining silent. He didn't know what to say and knew it probably hadn't been the best idea to try talking to the best friend of his ex. Obviously, Gemma was taking Kayli's side.

"Anyway," Davis groaned. "You know that Reno's taken Rex on that mission he wanted to go on? He could be getting a prosthetic arm any day now if he does well."

"Yeah, I was with him when Reno called," Gemma smiled. "He's so excited."

"I would be too," Davis nodded.

"Hey, Gemma! I have to talk to-" Kayli stopped in her mid-run towards her best friend and scowled at the man standing in front of the desk. "Never mind. I'll talk to you later."

"Wait!"

Kayli had spun on her heel and now slowly turned back to stare at Davis, who had called out to her. She folded her arms.

"Are you taking the mission to Wutai?" he asked nervously.

"No," she said bluntly. "Are you?"

"No."

"Great. Nice chat."

Kayli turned and left the room quickly, not allowing Davis any more time to call her back and keep her there longer. He rolled his eyes in frustration and practically collapsed on Gemma's desk, resulting in her raising an eyebrow.

"What do I have to do?" he whimpered.

"Give her space," Gemma told him again.

"I know," Davis mumbled. "But it's not just her. I feel like _everyone_ hates me now. I mean, you don't like me because you're siding with Kayli, Rex keeps telling me I should have been more sensitive around the girl because of her past, and even this completely random new _grunt_ was hostile towards me yesterday."

"Yeah? New grunt?" Gemma asked slowly, immediately interested. There weren't many new grunts around the middle of the year and she wondered if Davis had met 'Roy' as well.

"Yeah," Davis nodded, then gestured at his own face. "Scarred all over."

"Really," Gemma murmured.

"Know him?" Davis asked, straightening up finally and shoving his hands in his pockets. "Or... his name at least? I mean, everyone comes through you now, right?"

"I know his name," Gemma confirmed.

"...What do you think?"

Gemma and Davis stared at each other for a minute in silence, neither one speaking. Then Gemma sighed and maximised the document she had been looking at before, turning the computer screen around so that Davis could see it. He leant in close and his eyes widened slowly as he read the information.

"No way," he breathed. "Roy's dead."

"That's what I keep telling myself," Gemma replied.

"But he's got the same birthday and everything! Have you told Kayli?" Davis asked.

"Not yet," Gemma shook her head. "I don't know if I should. Do you really think this is him? I mean, _really_?"

"Well..." Davis re-read the document and shrugged. "He says being a SOLDIER is a need. If it _is_ who we think it is, maybe he thinks he needs to become a SOLDIER in order to become stronger."

"Yes," Gemma nodded. "But if he's alive why hasn't he gotten in contact with Kayli before? Why would he keep silent all these years? They were _twins_ Davis, that's a bond you can't break. I'm _certain_ if the real Roy was alive he would've gone looking for her long ago."

"He has a brother," Davis said quickly. "The boy he came with is his brother. Owen."

"Owen? But they have different last names," Gemma retorted.

"Owen introduced Roy as his brother when I met them," Davis shrugged. "What if some other family found him and took him in? He might've lost his memory from when Liam attacked him. That would explain why he hasn't gone looking for her."

"But it doesn't explain why becoming a SOLDIER is a need," Gemma pointed out.

"Look, I don't know," Davis said, pulling his hands out of his pockets to hold them up in the air in surrender. "I'm just saying what could be a possibility."

"Try and keep an eye on him then," Gemma said. "If anything else happens that points toward him fitting the role of Kayli's twin brother even more, let me know."

"Right," Davis said as he raised an eyebrow. "Keep an eye on the grunt who has an irrational grudge against me already."

Gemma gasped.

"What now?" Davis groaned.

"An irrational grudge against you! Kayli doesn't like you! They're twins!" Gemma practically screamed. "It _has_ to be him! Go find him and talk to him! You _have_ to!"

Davis gave her a pleading look, showing her how badly he did not want to have to go and talk to the grunt who already despised him, but Gemma simply glared in response and wouldn't back down. Finally, Davis rolled his eyes and left.

Gemma was shaky as she turned her computer screen back to face her and tried to get back to normal secretary work. How was this going to change things? Would Kayli still want to be a SOLDIER after she found out about Roy being alive?

What if Roy had lost his memory like Davis had suggested? Kayli would be so devastated...

* * *

The quiet whirr of machinery was all Cloud could hear as he waited in the room patiently. Professor Hojo should be back any minute to conduct another test which would help enable his possibility of becoming a SOLDIER and so far, Cloud was just thankful that he hadn't run into Edvard.

Nowadays, Edvard seemed to be doing all he could to convince Cloud not to do what Hojo wanted. He would think up crazy excuses to try and get the blond to believe him but Cloud was _not_ falling for it. Cloud didn't even understand why Edvard was trying so hard to ruin his dream, but he wished the young scientist-in-training would just give up!

"Alright, then," Hojo muttered as he came striding back into the room with a clipboard in hand. "Ready for your next test?"

"Yes, Sir," Cloud nodded.

"Good," Hojo smiled and put his clipboard down, moving over to one of his devices and flicking some switches. "Now, you're going to be put through a couple of body exercises just like we did yesterday. While we do that, however, I'm going to plug in a..."

Hojo trailed off and then frowned, leaning closer to his device and flicking some more switches before it a hard whack. Muttering under his breath angrily, he suddenly walked over to the door and flung it open, revealing Edvard's stubborn expression.

"How _dare_ you touch my equipment!" Hojo squeaked angrily.

"I won't let you do that to Cloud," Edvard snapped. "He's not yours to play with. Let him become a SOLDIER!"

"Are you completely insane?" Hojo asked, beginning to chuckle guiltily and glancing over his shoulder at Cloud. The blond had first been very annoyed to see Edvard was interfering again, but now he was simply confused. "Of course he can become a SOLDIER," Hojo concluded.

"Exactly how long are you going to keep him here under the pretence that you're trying to help him achieve his dream?" Edvard asked. "It's been two years! Just how much longer do you think it will be before he realises you're screwing him over?"

"I am _not_-!" Hojo took a deep breath to calm himself and then stepped slightly closer to Edvard, lowering his voice. "I am not screwing him over. Now keep your big mouth shut and let me go back to my work or else I will end your apprenticeship right here and now!"

"Are you willing to risk losing me to Heidegger? He says I've got potential," Edvard said smugly, folding his arms.

Hojo muttered under his breath incoherently and stalked back over to his machine, giving it another hit before falling silent and turning to Edvard, his eyes shooting daggers.

"Tell me how to fix it," he demanded.

"Promise me you'll give Cloud the chance he wants," Edvard retorted sharply.

Hojo's eyes widened incredibly, his mouth open in rage as he tried to think of something he could say to his apprentice in response. Nothing was coming to his mind and this only succeeded in making him even angrier.

Finally, he managed to spit out, "I am _trying_ to give Cloud what he wants but you are making that impossible!"

"When were you going to tell him the next test involved mako?" Edvard asked.

Cloud gasped and took a step back. Hojo had been planning on giving him more mako again?

"Does that mean I'm ready?" he asked hurriedly. "I mean, if you give me mako and my body doesn't reject it that's great, right?"

"Yeah, great," Edvard nodded slowly. "Except he wasn't going to tell you so you wouldn't know to go and take the SOLDIER exams again."

"That's not true!" Hojo spat.

"Do it then," Edvard challenged. "Give him the dose of mako right now so that we can all see the effect."

Cloud watched Hojo closely as the man's small eyes darted around fearfully.

"I've seen your test results, Hojo," Edvard hissed. "I _know_ his body can handle it now. We both do."

"Y-yes well," Hojo wiped a hand across his forehead nervously. "Fine then."

Slowly walking over to pick up a syringe, Hojo carefully filled it with mako and then came over to Cloud. The blond had clenched his teeth angrily and was glaring at the scientist, unable to believe that he had fallen for Hojo's lies and hadn't even believed Edvard to be telling the truth until now. It was just so obvious when Hojo looked so guilty.

Preparing Cloud's arm quickly, Hojo began to inject the mako. Involuntarily, Cloud winced. His only previous memory of having mako in his system had resulted in his whole body shutting down and leaving only his mind in proper condition. The thought of that happening again was terrifying.

At the last minute, Cloud saw Hojo smirk. Then the syringe was pulled out and the scientist was walking away to dispose of it.

"What did you do?" Cloud asked immediately.

"What? Cloud, are you okay?" Edvard asked, stepping closer.

Cloud looked down at his arm, frowning and wondering whether he had imagined the smirk from Hojo. No... he was sure he hadn't. He could feel a tingling in his arms and legs. What had Hojo done? Or did Hojo simply know better than Edvard? Cloud wasn't ready for mako again yet and Hojo had known, but to prove that he had to do as Edvard said, otherwise they would think he was hiding something.

"Cloud?"

_I'm okay, _Cloud wanted to say. But as he found he _couldn't_ he realised it wasn't even true. Not only was his body shutting down this time, but so was his mind. He could see black dots over his vision and no matter how much he tried to blink them away they stayed.

"_What did you do to him, Hojo?_"

* * *

Davis sighed as he walked through the ShinRa halls, shaking his head slightly in amusement as he remembered when he and his friends had spent almost all their time in this section of the building, the grunt section. They were almost all separated now and it was a strange feeling being around different people and only seeing the friends from their first year at ShinRa occasionally.

Davis and Kayli had both gotten into SOLDIER on their second try after Rex had gotten into the Turk division first go, so Alec and Cloud were left with the infantrymen as they tried to get their skills up. Of course, then Cloud was being called to Professor Hojo almost every day and Alec was practically left on his own. It had been good to hear when Alec was promoted to Corporal, even if he still wasn't a SOLDIER.

Somehow, Alec and Jinx had become closer friends as well. When Jensen became a SOLDIER Jinx didn't really have anyone to talk to so he and Alec banded together, _especially_ since Jinx was a Sergeant now and they shared a room.

Pulling his hands out of his pockets as he rounded a corner, Davis paused. From the opposite end of the corridor Roy and Owen were walking in his direction.

"Hey there," Davis called out.

"Oh, hey!" Owen called excitedly when he saw who it was. "Did you need anything, Sir?"

Davis fought to hide a smile as he heard the word 'Sir' come from the boys mouth and walked closer to them. It was very satisfying hearing someone say that to him and it made it easier for him in that moment to ignore Roy's death glare.

"I just thought I'd come and see how you're settling into ShinRa?" Davis asked.

"It's great!" Owen gushed. "We've just finished our initial tests and stuff. They told us to go back to our room and wait for an answer of whether we got in or not."

"Well I'm sure you did really well and will have no problem passing," Davis grinned. "And uh, yesterday you said the two of you are brothers?" Davis gestured vaguely between Owen and Roy.

"That's right!" Owen nodded enthusiastically, glancing back at Roy.

"So what?" Roy spoke up suddenly.

"Nothing," Davis shrugged quickly, not wanting to get into an argument with Roy. It was bad enough having almost everyone else angry with him too. "I was just interested because you've got black hair but Owen's got blond hair."

"Yeah..." Owen frowned slightly and glanced at Roy again before squaring his shoulders and turning back to Davis. "We're not biological brothers."

"Really?" Davis asked, raising his eyebrows in interest as he focused his attention on Owen. This was proving to be a very informative conversation. "And how did he get his scars?"

"Tractor accident," Owen said quietly. "He doesn't like to talk about it."

Davis nodded slowly and looked back up at Roy while saying, "Owen, could you go inside your room for a minute? I'd like to talk to your brother privately for a minute."

Owen glanced between the two of them nervously before nodding and darting off, disappearing into the room with a quiet slam of the door. Clearly he had noticed the glare on Roy's face that was still directed at Davis and didn't want to be around for the outcome.

"What do you want, _Sir_?" Roy asked, unable to help the slightly patronising tone in his voice as he spoke.

"So you and Owen aren't biological brothers. Which one's adopted?" Davis asked, cutting straight to the chase.

Roy narrowed his eyes, drawing his eyebrows together in confusion as he wondered why this question was being asked. Why did it matter? He had assumed Davis had come to talk to him about his reason for wanting to become a SOLDIER, not about who in his family was adopted.

"I am," he said finally.

"Hm, and when was the tractor accident that gave you those scars?" Davis asked next, trying to appear innocent with his questions.

"Does it matter?" Roy snapped immediately. Why did _everyone_ have to ask about his scars? He didn't want to talk about them! Not only because of how they really happened, but also because he was sick and tired of lying. A 'tractor accident' always made it sound so pathetic.

"That must have been a pretty bad accident to have you so defensive about it now," Davis said softly. "Are you sure it was a tractor accident?"

Roy felt the air being squeezed out of his lungs and stared at Davis in disbelief. No one had ever thought he was lying before. Why now? Unless... unless Davis was working for Liam and had come to scope out the area before reporting back so Liam could finish him off.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why was he thinking like this? He needed to get a grip on himself!

"I'm sorry," Davis said suddenly. "They just don't really look like they're from a tractor."

"Well they are," Roy said finally, finding his voice and lifting his chin slightly in defiance. If his crazy thought _was_ true then he needed to protect himself from anyone trying to find him.

"Alright," Davis nodded slowly. "So what was your name before you were adopted, do you remember? Or were you too young?"

"Why all the questions? I have no obligation to tell you _anything_ you know," Roy growled out.

"Well," Davis hesitated for a moment as he thought of what he could say. "ShinRa just likes to know a bit more about who they're dealing with when people join up. You filled out a lot of forms, yes, but questions like the ones I'm asking now can't really be printed as mass-production for any grunt to fill out."

"So you're just doing your job?" Roy asked doubtfully.

"Exactly," Davis nodded. "Now, if you don't want to talk about your name, how about you let me know why you wrote down that being a SOLDIER is a need and not a want?"

There it was, the expected question.

"It sounded cool in my head," Roy shrugged. "Are we done now?"

Davis scowled and was about to say something in reply when Roy rolled his eyes and pushed past him, entering his room and slamming the door behind. Obviously, the conversation would have to be continued later.

Sighing, Davis left to go find Gemma again, knowing she would want to know all he'd found out as soon as possible.

* * *

A/N: Errr I also wanted to say I love Edvard XD


	10. Chapter 9

A/N: I am soooooo sorry about the delay! I had really bad writers block for a while there! Anyway, at least there's a new chapter now for you all to enjoy :) And I hope you do enjoy it, even though most of it is a flashback. The following chapters after this should hopefully be a bit more interesting... lol!

Anyway, I decided to write this because quite a few people wanted to know how it all began. How what began? You'll know. Trust me, when you read this, you'll know. =]

* * *

_The trees rustled in the gentle breeze and Kayli shifted her grip on her sword slightly, her eyes darting around nervously. Davis was squatting beside her in the cover of the overgrown bushes and had his gun clenched tightly in his hands, his expression one of total concentration._

_ They were out on their first proper mission as 3rd Class SOLDIERs and couldn't afford to mess up. Sure, they were only dealing with a couple of monsters, but these were the kinds of monsters that only SOLDIERs were allowed to fight and as such new SOLDIERs neither Kayli nor Davis had ever faced anything like it._

_ A slight crunch of dead leaves sounded in the distance and Kayli bit her lip, fixing her eyes on the approximate position where she thought the noise had come from. Any second the monster would be close enough to see._

_ Kayli tried to keep her breathing quiet as they waited, her eyes never leaving the spot where she had heard the sound of the monster moving around._

There!_ She could make out the dark shape which told of a monster hiding amongst the trees but didn't need to tell Davis – he had seen it too. He began standing up slowly, raising his gun to aim at the beast and then wait for the right moment to shoot. Kayli was about to hiss at Davis to get back down when there was a loud grunt and the monster came leaping out from its hiding place, racing towards them._

_ Davis fired a shot which slammed into the beasts shoulder before reaching down to grab Kayli, pulling her up onto her feet and spinning her around, shoving her._

_ "Get out of here!" he yelled, shooting again at the monster which was still running at them, ignoring the wound it had already obtained. Kayli stumbled over her feet and clenched her teeth together, trying not to get too angry at Davis for wanting her out of the way. He was just worried about her, she knew, but this was her mission as well!_

_ Hearing Davis' heavy breathing behind her, she risked a glance back._

_ The monster was almost upon them. Davis was firing bullets into it as quickly as he could as he tried to run backwards at the same time and Kayli knew he couldn't succeed on his own. So, ignoring Davis' yells of protest as he saw what she was doing, she spun around with her sword held out in front of her, crying out and lunging at the monster._

_ "Kayli, be careful!" Davis called out fearfully. As Kayli plunged her sword into the monsters flesh and ducked its sharp claws, she rolled her eyes. Why on earth would she want to be _careful_? Thanks Davis, she never would have been able to think of that on her own._

_ A few very tense minutes later Kayli stood back from the crumpled form of the monster. Davis had pitched in to help by shooting it again and again from close range as Kayli stabbed whatever she could reach and together they had finally defeated it._

_ "Good work," Rames, a 1st Class SOLDIER who had been assigned to oversee their mission along with 2nd Class Nareau, spoke as he walked over to them. Nareau wasn't far behind him and Kayli and Davis turned to face their superiors._

_ Kayli smiled faintly, glad that Rames was pleased. Hopefully he wouldn't-_

_ "You okay, Peters? That was a dangerous thing you did there. You should have let Taison handle it," Rames continued, putting his hands on his hips casually. "Be a bit more careful next time, alright?"_

_ Ever since her gender had been revealed Kayli had been receiving special treatment. She wasn't just 'one of the boys' any more as squad leaders gave her preferences for missions and constantly asked if she was okay while performing tasks. She was sick of it. She was here in Roy's place and didn't want to be treated any differently to anyone else._

_ "With all due respect, Sir," Kayli said, her eyes dark with annoyance. "There was no way we were going to succeed if I didn't act when I did."_

_ "It was good thinking and it worked," Rames agreed. "Just be sure to never do anything you're not positive you can handle, yeah?"_

_ "What's that supposed to mean?" Kayli asked with a frown._

_ "Nothing," Rames said awkwardly, confused as to why Kayli seemed to be getting defensive._

_ Kayli didn't say anything else then and Rames glanced back at Nareau, shrugging helplessly. Announcing that they were to head back then, Rames walked off._

_ "Are you okay?" Davis asked quietly as they began following Rames at a distance._

_ "Yeah," Kayli sighed, folding her arms. She wasn't entirely happy with Davis at the moment either, as he seemed to be doing exactly the same thing as everyone else._

_ "Really," Davis probed. "What's on your mind?"_

_ "I'm just sick of being treated like a girl," Kayli groaned. "It's not like I'm going to break if I get hit too hard! I can handle anything _you_ can."_

_ "Well yeah, of course," Davis said thoughtfully. "But you _are_ a girl."_

_ "Excuse me?" Kayli asked. "What are you trying to say?"_

_ "Just that, well, did you honestly not expect this?" Davis queried. "I mean, with everyone finding out you're a girl they were bound to start treating you like one. And I think it's kind of good, in a way."_

_ "How exactly is it good?" Kayli snapped._

_ "Well you're a girl so you should be treated like one," Davis shrugged._

_ "But I'm a SOLDIER," Kayli pointed out. "Why can't I be treated like that?"_

_ "You're a _female_ SOLDIER..." Davis trailed off._

_ "Argh!" Kayli exclaimed, throwing her hands up and walking faster to get away from him. Rames was already in the truck they'd be travelling in to get back to ShinRa and Kayli quickly jumped in the back._

_ Davis was about to join her when Nareau stopped him with a hand on his arm._

_ "You can sit in the front," he said gently, his eyes staring into Davis' own and making it impossible to disagree with his suggestion. Davis glanced at Kayli and then slid into the passenger seat as Nareau climbed in the back._

_ The first half of the drive back was silent. Finally, Nareau decided to try and find out what was wrong and spoke to Kayli._

_ "You did a good job out there," he started. "You'll make a good 1st Class SOLDIER one day."_

_ "Thanks," Kayli said softly._

_ "Do you mind if I ask what you and Taison were arguing about before?" Nareau asked carefully, not wanting to offend but knowing it was best to find out so that he could try and prevent future arguments which may affect their missions._

_ "Something stupid," Kayli sighed._

_ "So tell me," Nareau pushed._

_ Closing her eyes briefly, Kayli steeled herself. "I'm just sick of everyone treating me differently. I know I'm a girl but I'm also a SOLDIER and I just want to be treated like one. Who cares what gender I am?"_

_ "I understand," Nareau nodded slowly._

_ "Heh, really?" Kayli mumbled. She reached a hand up to tuck some of her hair behind her ear and momentarily mused on how it had grown so quickly the past year. Now that her gender was revealed she hadn't felt the need to keep it so short any more and it had reached her shoulders again._

_ "However," Nareau continued. "I think it's partly your own responsibility not to let it get to you. If they treat you differently, ignore it. Now that you _are_ a SOLDIER you can't spend time obsessing over how other people are treating you."_

_ "Yeah, I know-"_

_ "Seriously Kayli," Nareau interrupted her. "You're here to get to 1st Class, right?"_

_ "Yeah," Kayli nodded, slightly confused as to why he had suddenly called her Kayli instead of Peters._

_ "So you shouldn't be worrying about anything else," Nareau said firmly. "Can you promise me you'll try to be more focused on that from now on?"_

_ "I _am_ focused on that," Kayli laughed. "It's all I think about!"_

_ "Well," Nareau smiled slightly. "I'll see about having a word with some people then to try and get them to stop making you feel so girly."_

_ Kayli shook her head in amusement but smiled a thank you at Nareau. They soon arrived at ShinRa then got out of the truck, walking in through the back doors of the building. They'd have to report to Lazard before going anywhere else._

_ On the way to the Director's office Davis and Kayli fell into step beside each other while Nareau and Rames walked slightly ahead of them. Davis kept glancing at Kayli every few steps and finally she turned to him with a raised eyebrow._

_ "What?"_

_ "Just wondering if you're okay," Davis shrugged._

_ "I'm fine," Kayli sighed. "I guess I just feel like it would be so much easier continuing as a SOLDIER if everyone thought I was a guy again."_

_ "What? No! It's good that everyone knows you're a girl now!" Davis exclaimed. "Why would you want to go back to pretending all the time?"_

_ "Well I wouldn't have to worry about being treated differently, for a start," Kayli shrugged._

_ "You honestly don't like being treated like a girl? Kayli... don't you think that maybe all your previous pretending to be Roy has gotten to your head a bit much? You have been seeing you counsellor, haven't-"_

_ "Davis, shut up," Kayli snapped. "This has nothing to do with Roy."_

_ "We both know that's not true," Davis said adamantly. "You wouldn't be acting like this if you hadn't pretended to be him in the first-"_

_ "I wouldn't even _be_ here if I hadn't done that!" Kayli yelled, ceasing walking to fully turn and face him, her eyes narrowed angrily. "What are you trying to say?"_

_ "Nothing!" Davis exclaimed, rolling his eyes and running a hand through his hair. "Just chill out, alright? I didn't mean anything about it. I'm just worried about you."_

_ "Yeah," Kayli scoffed. "Worried about me because you think I've lost my mind. I don't actually believe that I'm Roy, if that's why you're going nuts!"_

_ "I know that, Kayli-"_

_ "Wait a minute, are you just worried about people thinking you're gay? If I went back to pretending a guy you'd want to hide our relationship again wouldn't you? Come on Davis, I never said I was _going_ to go back to doing that! It wouldn't work anyway, since everyone knows I'm a girl now."_

_ "Kayli, why are you making this into such a big thing?" Davis asked with a shake of his head._

_ "Me? You're the one who can't seem to understand how I feel right now! I was just trying to explain but you kept being so... so stupid! And you know what? If you can't understand how I feel about this whole thing then this isn't worth it," Kayli folded her arms and looked down at the floor. She would give him one last chance to say something and make it up to her before making her final decision._

_ "What's not worth it? Kayli, seriously, what are you talking about?" Davis asked, thoroughly confused._

_ "That's it," Kayli threw her hands up and took a step back, shaking her head slowly. "If we're just gonna keep arguing then I don't want to do this any more."_

_ "Do what?" Davis asked._

_ "Be your girlfriend," Kayli said quietly._

_ "What? Kayli, I don't-"_

_ "You don't understand! I get it! Because you're too thick to realise what I'm feeling and what I'm trying to say!" Kayli yelled at him angrily. "Forget it, Davis. I can't go out with someone who won't even try to see things from my perspective."_

_ "I _am_ trying!" Davis retorted heatedly._

_ "Yeah? So you'll help me get people to treat me like a normal SOLDIER, then?" Kayli asked._

_ "What? You're still going on about that?" Davis asked._

_ Raising an eyebrow, Kayli turned and stormed away from him without a backwards glance. Davis ran after her and tried to get her to explain what was wrong but she remained silent until they reached Lazard's office._

_ After the debriefing, Kayli disappeared quickly and Davis was left to wonder what on earth he'd done to put her in such a bad mood. He didn't understand it at all._

_ Oh well. He'd try to get through to her again tomorrow.

* * *

_

Kayli knocked on the door of Naruea's shared apartment gently, a smile on her face as she waited in anticipation for him to come and answer. Since they both didn't have anything scheduled for the night they had planned to have dinner together and Nareau had invited her over to his small apartment as it was a lot better than the one she shared with other 3rd Classes. The quality of the apartment that SOLDIERs stayed in improved as the ranking went up.

Finally, the door opened.

"Oh, hey Kayli!" Kunsel greeted with a smile. "I'm just heading out, so don't mind me. You two have fun!"

With a coat over one arm, Kunsel brushed past her and walked down the corridor casually. He was Nareau's flat-mate.

Nareau had had the apartment to himself for a while after Camon's death, but when Zack was promoted to 1st Class he and Kunsel were shoved together to free up more rooms for up-and-coming future SOLDIERs.

Stepping inside and shutting the door behind her, Kayli smiled over at Nareau. He was setting two plates of food that looked a lot better than what was served in the cafeteria down on a small table positioned in front of the couch.

"You brought the movie?" Nareau asked. There was also a TV in the apartment, across from the couch, although it wasn't very good quality. It would do.

"Yeah," Kayli nodded, patting her bag before setting it down on the floor beside the couch. "Ready to eat?"

"You arrived at the perfect time," Nareau said with a nod and a grin.

Sitting down on the couch together and gently pulling the table closer towards them, they began to eat the food that Nareau had prepared for them. Kayli couldn't help feeling cheerful as she thought about the fact that she was on a date.

"There's something I need to tell you," Nareau said cautiously after a moment.

"Sure, what is it?" Kayli asked, looking over at him encouragingly.

"Well, the thing is," Nareau began and then decided to simply spit the rest out without beating around the bush. "I've been recommended for 1st Class."

Kayli was silent for a moment as the words sunk in. "Are you serious?" she then exclaimed. "That's amazing! Congratulations!"

Nareau smiled in thanks and Kayli giggled before reached a hand out to brush some of his white hair away from his face. She thought it was adorable how he now kept his hair up in a pony-tail, but his shorter layers always stuck out still.

"I'm so proud of you," Kayli sighed happily.

"You'll get there one day, you know," Nareau told her. "I'm sure you will."

"I hope so," Kayli grinned. "I'll just have to wait and see if I've really got what it takes to be a 1st Class SOLDIER."

"Just keep doing what you're doing," Nareau advised.

Kayli shook her head slightly, still smiling, and went back to eating her food. She felt incredibly lucky to have a boyfriend who could cook as it meant she didn't have to eat as much cafeteria food – which, honestly, wasn't that great.

When they'd both finished eating and Nareau had taken their plates over to the sink, Kayli got up to put the movie in. She'd brought a chick flick as Nareau had specifically stated he didn't care what they watched.

Turning the TV on and sitting back down on the couch, Kayli waited for Nareau to come back. When he did, he moved the small table out of the way as well and then sat down beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders casually so that she was able to lean against him.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Yeah," he nodded. "Go ahead."

Smiling, Kayli pressed play and then put the controllers aside. The movie began.

It was a fair way through when the main character was going through a particularly stressful situation that Kayli sighed and said, "Isn't that terrible? What's she gonna do?"

When she heard no answer, Kayli turned her head to look at Nareau. He still had his arm around her shoulders but his head had fallen back against the couch and his eyes were closed. He was asleep.

Her eyebrows going up, Kayli murmured, "Awh!" before snuggling further against him and sighing contentedly. She didn't mind if he fell asleep during their movie – it was a chick flick after all – as she could use the opportunity to snuggle with him.

He wasn't a very snuggly person normally, so Kayli was _not_ about to let this opportunity pass her by.

Besides, she was sure he wouldn't mind.


	11. Chapter 10

A/N: Another chapter so soon, le gasp! :O

Anywayz, I like this chapter. It's exciting. You're all going to hate me. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA- I shouldn't have said that, should I? Hmm. Oh well. Enjoy! (Oh and by the way, just because I'm curious, if you decide to leave a review, please add the word 'pineapple' to your review. I'd like to know how many people actually read these comment things :B)

* * *

The next day Kayli was in a very good mood, but she didn't have anything written into her schedule for the morning so she headed off to see Dr Justin Auld, her old counsellor. As Lazard had requested of her, she had seen a counsellor for a whole year following her acceptance into the SOLDIER program. A year ago now she had stopped having regular sessions, but every now and then she went back just for a chat. He was a good friend as well as a counsellor and he always had something to say when she had a question.

So she made her way to the very familiar area and walked over to the secretary in the waiting room.

"Hey," Kayli greeted. "I was just wondering if Justin would be able to spare a minute to talk to me?"

"Please take a seat," the secretary said sweetly and Kayli did as she was told, waiting patiently as the secretary then proceeded to press the intercom and ask whether Dr Auld was very busy.

Five minutes later, the secretary waved Kayli through.

Justin's room was very relaxed. There was a soft couch, a table with fruit on it and a desk and chair at the far end. He was just standing up from the desk when Kayli entered and smiled as he saw her.

"I haven't seen you in a while," he stated. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah," Kayli sighed, plonking herself down on the couch. "Just needed someone to talk to I guess."

Justin sat on the edge of the table in front of Kayli and nodded for her to continue.

"It's Davis," she admitted after a moment. "He's _still_ not giving up."

"Does that surprise you?" Justin asked, raising his eyebrows. "He's the first one who found out your secret, after all. Did you really expect him to let you go just because you broke it off with him?"

"I just wish he'd finally understand that we're not going to get back together just because he wants us to!" Kayli groaned.

"Has he said he wants to get back with you?" Justin frowned.

"Well, no-"

"Then don't assume," Justin chuckled. "He probably just wants to be friends again. Why won't you at least give him that?"

"I want him to realise what he did wrong." Kayli folded her arms. "I mean, it's been a year! How much longer does he need?"

"Maybe you're going to have to help him out a bit there," Justin shrugged. "If he really has no idea then you should tell him. Then, at least, he'll be able to learn from his mistake. But if you never tell him and simply keep avoiding him he may never find out what he did wrong. In the end it's up to you."

"I _know_ that," Kayli said with a roll of her eyes. "I just wish he wasn't so stupid."

"So is that all you really wanted to talk about?" Justin asked with an amused smile. "I've got another patient in five minutes."

"Oh, sorry," Kayli said, standing up. "I can go if you want."

"It's alright," Justin said, gesturing for her to sit again. "If there's something else you wanted to talk about then its best to get it off your chest now, rather than bottling it up again for even longer."

"It's nothing really," Kayli said as she sunk down onto the couch once more. "It's all just to do with Davis, I guess. He's really getting on my nerves."

"Well, like I said," Justin said. "I really think you should tell him what he did wrong so that you can at least try to go back to being friends again."

"Yeah, but how hard can it be to realise that I just wanna be treated like everyone else? I said that to him when we broke up but he _still_ didn't get it! Who's to say he'll understand now?" Kayli asked with a heavy sigh, looking down at her hands and fiddling with one of her nails.

"All you can do is try," Justin told her.

"Of course." Kayli rolled her eyes again and then reached into her pocket, pulling out a small nail file which she quickly used to fix the part of her nail that had chipped slightly. "Anyway, maybe it is best that I just explain to him how I wanna be treated like one of the guys. Maybe then he'll start doing so! I mean, I'm a SOLDIER so why can't I be treated like that? I don't need anyone making exceptions for me, least of all _him!_"

Justin was silent as he listened to her talk, simply watching with one raised eyebrow as she spouted how she wanted to be treated like everyone else and filed her nail at the same time. It was a sight to behold.

"I've talked enough," Kayli finally said, putting her nail file back into her pocket. "Thanks for listening even though I've probably bored you to death."

"I'll always be here if you need someone to talk to," Justin said with a smile, standing up from the table as Kayli stood from the couch again.

"See you whenever then," Kayli grinned, turning and heading to the door. Justin said goodbye and walked over to his desk, sitting down and turning to some papers as he waited for his next patient to arrive.

Stepping out of the room, Kayli saw a man around her age sitting on one of the waiting chairs. His head was down looking at his hands in his lap but from her angle she could see some scarring on his face. His head turned slightly as if he was about to look up at her but then it stopped and his hands clenched into fists.

Biting her lip nervously, Kayli walked past him calmly but quickly and exited the waiting room. She wasn't surprised to see someone like that sitting in the waiting room of a counsellor's office. Whatever had happened to give him those scars probably had a really bad effect on his mental health.

Sighing and pushing the scarred man out of her mind, she decided to go down to the training room and have a bit of a practise doing the sword movements Nareau had shown her the other day. The sooner she got them down pat the better.

* * *

Roy looked up when the secretary called his name. She was smiling.

"You can go in, now," she told him.

Nodding, Roy stood and walked over to the door, opening it and stepping into Dr Auld's counselling office. The counsellor stood in front of his desk, leaning back against it casually.

"Roy," he greeted with a smile. "I finally meet you in person."

Pushing away from his desk, he walked forward and extended a hand which Roy took nervously. Dr Auld didn't look quite like he had expected. For a thirty-seven year old man he was looking good and there was something very friendly about his face.

"Nice to meet you too," Roy said quietly.

"Have a seat," Dr Auld said. "Anywhere, really. I don't mind."

Roy settled for the couch.

"So how are you settling into ShinRa?" Dr Auld asked, perching himself on the edge of the table again. "You've now been accepted into the program haven't you?"

"Yeah," Roy nodded. "Owen and I were both accepted."

"That's great! You're on your way to finally achieving your dream, then," Dr Auld grinned. He knew from previous sessions that Roy had always dreamed of being a SOLDIER, even back before the incident with Liam.

Roy nodded his agreement, allowing a small smile to show on his face as he thought about becoming a SOLDIER and finally reaching his dream.

"And you've been taking your pills?" Dr Auld went on, folding his arms.

"Yes," Roy confirmed. "Just as I'm meant to."

"That's good. Now tell me honestly, do you think they're helping at all?" Dr Auld asked. "I mean, are the urges lessening gradually?"

Roy was silent for a moment as he considered the question and thought about the best way to answer it.

"No."

"No?" Dr Auld questioned, leaning forward slightly and dropping his arms to his sides, resting his hands on the table he was sitting on.

"They're the same," Roy said softly. "The pills help a bit but they don't stop them completely and it's been like this ever since I started taking them."

"I see," Dr Auld said thoughtfully, a slight frown on his face. "What have you been doing lately to counteract the urges?"

"Everything you tell me," Roy sighed. "I focus on good thoughts and memories and I go somewhere so I can be alone. That way, if I still can't control it, I won't be able to hurt anyone because I'll be by myself."

Dr Auld nodded slowly, glad to hear that Roy had committed his instructions to memory.

"That's good to hear," he said with a nod. "I'll have to have a think about whether there's anything else I can tell you to do to help lessen the urges even more. I'm really sorry about this Roy, but you've got to understand that I've only ever dealt with one other case of PSD and it was considerably mild in comparison to what you have."

"I know, it's okay."

"So, anyway," Dr Auld said, deciding to change the subject. "You are settling okay into ShinRa then? I mean, so far your urges haven't caused any problems?"

"No, not yet." Roy shook his head. "But I..." he trailed off and looked down at his hands, frowning.

"What is it?" Dr Auld asked gently.

"I don't really know how to explain it," Roy shrugged.

"You feel lonely? People don't want to talk to you?" Dr Auld questioned, curious as to what could be bothering his patient.

"Well yeah, no one's really interested in talking to 'scar-face'," Roy scoffed. "But that's not what I was... I feel really uneasy being here."

"At ShinRa or in my office?" Dr Auld asked to clarify.

"ShinRa," Roy said. "Your office is a bit strange as well but, no, I meant ShinRa."

"So what exactly is making you feel uneasy? Is it because you haven't made very many friends yet or something else?" Dr Auld inquired.

"It's just... _ShinRa_," Roy stressed the word, his eyebrows furrowed deeply. Dr Auld remained silent as he could tell Roy was trying to figure out how to explain himself further. "I know I always wanted to be a SOLDIER, I just... what if ShinRa actually is a bad place?"

They sat in silence for a further few moments as Dr Auld tried to understand what was being asked.

"You- what makes you think ShinRa is a bad place?" he finally asked.

"Just a feeling," Roy mumbled, unwilling to tell the real reason just yet. He didn't even want to think about the real reason, although it hadn't left his mind ever since setting foot in the building. Liam's words...

_"__ShinRa is _evil_, you hear me?"_

"If you don't want to tell me right now that's okay," Dr Auld said quietly. "But I will need you to tell me eventually if I'm going to be able to help you settle in more, alright?"

Roy didn't say anything in response. He was focusing on keeping an urge down and not letting it gain control. He couldn't let that happen, especially not when he was in his counsellor's office.

"Is there anything else you particularly wanted to talk to me about?" Dr Auld asked then.

"I don't think so," Roy shrugged and shook his head.

"Alright, then I guess we can finish up with your session here. I'll get in contact with you again when I know more about what you can do to try and lessen your urges," Dr Auld said, standing up. Roy stood up as well and nodded. "For now just keep doing what you have been doing."

"Sure," Roy agreed. "I can do that."

"Great," Dr Auld smiled and held out his hand for another handshake. "It really was great to finally see you in person, Roy. I'm going to do everything I can to try and help you settle into ShinRa and conquer your urges."

"Thank you," Roy said awkwardly, releasing Dr Auld's hand and turning to the door, walking out.

* * *

Roy stared up at the roof from where he lay on the top bunk in the room he shared with the other boys. His arms were folded across his chest as he lay still, simply staring. He still couldn't quite believe that he and Owen had been accepted into the ShinRa program after all. It was amazing to comprehend even though he had known it would happen.

His dream was within reach. He would become a SOLDIER and then find Kayli, rescuing her from Liam and anyone else who could be a potential threat to her. He would be her hero. It didn't matter that he still had so many conflicting feelings about ShinRa and he no longer knew whether it was the right place to be or not.

Once he found Kayli, none of that would matter any more. He would be skilled as a SOLDIER so he would be able to protect her in any situation. If ShinRa did turn out to be bad, he would simply sever all connections to the place. He would still be able to protect her and keep her safe from anyone who might try to hurt her.

Gasping and closing his eyes tightly, Roy clutched his bed sheets with his hands and tried to push away the urge he was feeling. It seemed that no matter how many pills he took or how many times he saw his counsellor, the urges would always come full-force when he thought about Kayli. It was just the thought of anyone hurting her that made him-

Practically throwing himself off the edge of the bed, Roy landed with a dull thud on his feet, knees bent to take his weight. Straightening up, he headed to the door quickly and quietly slipped outside into the hall beyond. This was too much to handle.

Padding along the corridor in his socks, Roy let himself into the communal bathrooms and went over to the sinks. Turning a tap on and splashing his face with the cold water that came out, he tried to fight it. His hands were shaking.

_ We're exactly the same_.

Swearing in surprise and looking up at the mirror in front of him, he stumbled back a few steps before stopping and squinting. It was dark as all the lights were off so he found it difficult to make out the reflection in the mirror, but he could have sworn it was...

_That's right, it's me_.

Roy could hear laughing. In his head. It was _him_. Liam was inside him.

"Get out! Leave me alone!" Roy yelled, stepping further away from the mirror as if being unable to see his reflection would save him from the monster he'd become.

_Do you actually think you'll succeed in taking her from me? She's mine. Give up._

"No-" Roy shook his head and clamped his hands over his ears. "I have to save her. She's my responsibility. I never should have left in the first place!"

_She thinks you hate her. You left her all alone to fend for herself and I was there to pick up the pieces. She loves me. You have nothing to come back to._

Roy was yelling. Tears were streaming down his face and he couldn't see past the blur as he panicked, trying to claw the sound of Liam's voice out of his head. His body was pulsing with the overwhelming urge to kill something and he thought he heard something shatter.

_Your scars will terrify her._

"Stop it! Shut up!"

_ You're the failure and I'm the perfect brother._

"You tried to _kill_ me!"

_ You're no better than me! Do you feel that? Feel the fire, Roy! We share that!_

"No, shut up! Leave me alone!"

"Roy!"

"_Leave me alone!_"

"No, Roy, I-"

A resounding thud finally broke through the pulsing urges and Roy felt his senses slowly come back to him. The sides of his head were burning in pain and he glanced in the mirror to see that he was bleeding. Thankfully it was his own face that looked back at him this time and not Liam's, but then his gaze travelled across to the second mirror which was smashed and down to the leaking faucet spraying water into the room.

None of it compared to what he saw next. Lying on the ground of the bathroom in front of him was Owen, his eyes closed peacefully and blood trailing out from his nose. His right arm was sprawled out over some shards of glass from the mirror and Roy could see spots of blood beginning to form there as well.

_We share the fire._

Roy grabbed his head and stumbled backwards. This couldn't be happening. He never wanted to hurt Owen! He _loved_ Owen! Owen was his baby brother! How could he let something like this happen to him?

Light suddenly spilled into the bathroom from the door and Roy looked up into the face of a SOLDIER he didn't know. He tried to speak – he wanted to tell them it wasn't his fault – but instead a sob came out of his throat and his legs gave way.

"Sir, we've got a situation in the 26th floor bathrooms..." the SOLDIER murmured into his PHS.


	12. Chapter 11

A/N: Hello everyone! Okay, now some people will have already read this 'chapter' because I have put a link to this before... you're probably confused. Let me start again.

This chapter, chapter 11, was written by InyrilJace my wonderful amazing sister :) Originally I had not planned for it to be part of my story, as Jace simply came and asked if she could write a spin-off about Sergei. But recently as I've been thinking a lot more about what's happening in the story, I decided it needed to be part of ABD. I asked her and she said that was fine. Soooo I am going to put the link to her story here and you can all then go read her story which is now also chapter 11 of ABD.

Does that make sense?

And please, don't just skip it, because her story truly does have VERY VERY VERY important information in it about the future of ABD! :)

Thank you!

* * *

h t t p : / / w w w . fanfiction . net/s/6457336/1/FF7_Roy_spinoff


	13. Chapter 12

A/N: I hate ffnet. It made everything italicised so I had to go through and change all the italics manually again. :(

Um but yeah, another chapter! Gasp! I'm on a roll, aren't I? hehehe

Quick question, do you guys think that 1st Class SOLDIER should be written like that in a story, or like this: First Class SOLDIER? Because I'm not sure. lol. Meh I guess it doesn't matter that much, just thought I'd ask to find out your opinion. If you don't care, that's cool. I don't really care either.

Also... please don't kill me :)

* * *

Nareau massaged his temples as he walked out of Lazard's office, trying to fight an oncoming headache. Looking up, he was startled to see Davis walking straight towards him.

"Can I help you?"

"Have you seen Kayli?" Davis asked eagerly.

Nareau hesitated. "Not yet, why?"

"I'm just looking for her," Davis sighed, folding his arms and frowning in thought as he tried to think where to look next.

"Why?" Nareau pressed on.

"I need to tell her something, that's all," Davis shrugged. "If you see her can you let her know I'm looking for her?"

"What makes you think she's gonna wanna talk to you?" Nareau asked. "You two haven't spoken properly for a whole year."

"Oh come on," Davis exclaimed, dropping his arms to his sides. "This has nothing to do with all of that, alright? I just... I know something really important that I have to tell her. Okay? That's all."

"Why don't you tell me? I'll pass the message on."

"It's not that simple," Davis sighed.

"Davis, she's over you," Nareau said firmly. "Nothing you say is going to convince her to change her mind and trust me, I'm not just saying this to make you back off. I'm trying to be honest with you, okay? She doesn't want to have anything to do with you so if you really think she needs to know this, your best bet is to tell me."

Davis stared at Nareau in silence for a moment, considering his next words carefully.

"Forget it, I'll just get Gemma to talk to her," he said finally, shrugging and moving to walk away.

"That's probably a good idea," Nareau called to him before sighing and walking in the opposite direction. His headache had come full-force now.

He'd been on late night duty the night before and wasn't surprised that he had a headache now. Normally late night shifts of patrolling the ShinRa corridors were incredibly boring jobs, but this time Nareau had come across a surprising situation.

The two new grunts had been fighting in the bathrooms and the younger one had been taken to the infirmary right away. The older one had been sent to a counselling office to Nareau's surprise, as he had expected him to also been sent straight to the infirmary so that his head wounds could be dealt with.

After reporting to Lazard, Nareau was ready to go straight to bed and sleep his headache off for as long as he needed to. He didn't have anything else he needed to do today so he intended on doing just that.

Suddenly, Kayli rounded a corner in front of him and grinned when she saw him.

"Hey!"

"Hi Kayli," Nareau said with a sigh.

"You okay? You look pretty tired," Kayli pointed out with a slight frown. "Is everything okay?"

"Last night was a bit rough, that's all," Nareau shrugged. "The new grunts had a fight and I found them."

"Ooh," Kayli sympathised. "So you're heading back to your room now, then?"

"Yeah, I need the sleep," Nareau agreed.

"You and your sleep," Kayli laughed, tugging gently on a bit of white hair that had been left out of his pony-tail. "Well I'll see you later, alright? I have stuff to do."

"Yeah, later," Nareau nodded. The two shared a brief hug and then Kayli hurried on past him cheerfully.

To be honest, Kayli had only said she had stuff to do so that Nareau wouldn't feel bad by leaving right away to go get some rest. Her day actually wasn't very full at all, so she was on her way to find Jensen and ask if he was up for some sparring. Hopefully he would be free as well and she'd be able to try out the sword movements Nareau had taught her on an unsuspecting victim.

Kayli laughed to herself. She loved being at ShinRa.

"Whoa, Kayli!"

Squeaking in horror as she saw Davis exit a room up ahead, she spun around and tried to walk away inconspicuously. Clearly, she had failed.

"Kayli, wait," Davis said, rushing towards her. "I have something I need to tell you. See I was talking to Gemma and we decided that whatever happens, you deserve to know-"

"What? You've got Gemma on your side now?" Kayli spat, turning to face him, horrified that her best friend could have deserted her so quickly.

Davis frowned and slowly shook his head, confused. "What are we talking about?"

"Well I assume you're here to beg for me to accept your friendship again," Kayli said, putting her hands on her hips. "It's still a no, by the way. Oh, but if you're here to tell me that you've realised what you did wrong in the first place, maybe we can work things out!"

"Kayli," Davis said with a groan. "This has nothing to do with you and me! This is about Roy!"

Kayli fell silent and stared at him for a moment, her mind whirring. Why would he want to talk about Roy? They hadn't spoken about Roy for... well, a year. Ever since they broke up and Davis accused her of being too caught up in the memory of Roy, blaming that for making her want to be treated like a guy again.

"Davis I swear," Kayli said slowly. "If you say one more word I'm never talking to you again. My wanting to be treated as a SOLDIER has _nothing_ to do with Roy."

Davis blinked, at a loss for words as he tried to understand how she had jumped to the new topic of conversation so fast. Seriously, he would never be able to understand women even if he spent his whole life trying to!

"There we go," Kayli said with a small smile. "You're finally beginning to see sense."

"Wha-"

"Don't go ruining it," she continued. "Keep your mouth shut now and the next time I see you might not be as painful as this was!"

Kayli raised an eyebrow at Davis' gaping mouth and wide eyes before shrugging it off and walking past him. She didn't have time for him right now.

Fifteen minutes later, she found Jensen talking with Alec and Jinx.

"Hello boys," she greeted them with a smile.

"Kayli!" Alec grinned. "How've you been?"

"So-so," she shrugged. "Davis is still on my case but I think he's beginning to see sense again. How about you?"

"Doing alright," Alec nodded. "My work as Corporal isn't too hard to deal with. It's kind of fun being able to order the other grunts around a bit. But of course, we all know Jinx does that more than I do."

"Don't even _go_ there," Jinx warned in a hiss under his breath.

"Still sour?" Kayli asked, raising both her eyebrows. "You'll have to get over it one day, you know."

"I have absolutely no intention of getting over it. I am being kept out of the Turk program for no reason!" Jinx exclaimed angrily. "It's all Reno's fault. He knows how much it means to me."

Kayli shrugged and didn't reply, fighting back a smile. She thought it was hilarious that Reno was finally paying Jinx back for all the grief he'd given him in the past. It was the icing on top that Reno had chosen to mentor Rex and now Jinx refused to ever speak to him.

"Anyway," Kayli said with a small wave of her hand. "Who wants to join me for some sparring in the practise room?"

"Alec and I have got a squad to look after in ten minutes," Jinx said with a sigh. "Some other time maybe."

"Jensen?" Kayli asked, turning to the other man.

"Why not?" Jensen grinned, bumping his fist into Kayli's. "Now?"

"Yeah, I don't have anything else to do," Kayli explained, then turned to Alex and Jinx. "Have fun with your squad, guys."

"Ha ha," Jinx replied monotonously.

Grinning, Kayli signalled to Jensen and left the room.

* * *

When they reached the training rooms, Kayli turned to Jensen to ask where he wanted to train – a simulation room or a normal training room?

"Either one is fine," Jensen shrugged.

"Are you sure?" Kayli asked. "Because if you have a preference I really don't mind."

"Maybe... normal for now?" Jensen suggested awkwardly, gesturing to his eye-patch. "It might be a bit easier if I only have to focus on you without all the extra additions in a simulation."

"No problem," Kayli said understandingly. "I have some moves I wanna try out anyway and it'd be easier to do them in a simple sparring situation."

"Someone's been doing a lot of practise lately," Jensen grinned.

"You bet I have!" Kayli laughed. "Every time Nareau suggests more training I jump at the chance. Not only do I get to spend time with him, I get to hone my abilities as well!"

"You're gonna be a 1st Class in no time," Jensen said with an amused shake of his head.

"Whatever," Kayli rolled her eyes. "Gotta get to second before I think about first."

The two of them were about to move off to one of the normal training rooms when a door up ahead slammed open and Genesis Rhapsodos stormed out, his lips forming a thin line. It was obvious he wasn't happy, so Kayli and Jensen quickly flattened themselves against the wall.

"Genesis," Angeal called, stepping out of the room as well. "Genesis! You're _not_ fine so get back here!"

The Commander froze and his face twisted angrily before he spun around to face his friend, his hands tightening into fists.

"I said I was fine so why won't you believe me?"

Sephiroth appeared behind Angeal, his arms folded in annoyance.

"Stop being stupid," he said evenly. "You need to get it checked out."

"It's just a flesh wound," Genesis replied heatedly, self-consciously putting a hand over his shoulder. "It'll be fine in no time at all."

"It should already be healed!" Angeal shook his head. "You_ know_ something's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong!" Genesis yelled. "Leave me alone, will you? I can look after myself without the two of you trying to baby me!"

With that, he turned on his heel and left, ignoring the following shouts from his two friends as they tried to make him stop and come back.

Kayli and Jensen remained pressed up against the wall, not daring to speak. They both knew they had just witnessed something very personal and neither one felt like moving just yet in case Angeal or Sephiroth decided to take their annoyance out on someone.

Thankfully, Angeal and Sephiroth turned to each other to talk, apparently unaware of the two onlookers.

"That wound should have healed in seconds," Angeal murmured. "Unless it really is a lot deeper than it looks, but he did say it was just a flesh wound."

"There's nothing we can do to make him see sense right now," Sephiroth said with a shrug. "I'll talk to him again tomorrow."

"Seph..." Angeal said slowly, looking down at the floor. "You know how he's been acting real different lately? Like, not as energetic as he used to be and tiring out quicker?"

"Do you think the two things are connected?" Sephiroth asked.

"They could be," Angeal nodded. "What I was going to say is that... I've been feeling the same. Tired a lot quicker and just generally lazy. What if- what if something's happening to us?"

"Don't be stupid," Sephiroth said, looking away from Angeal and squaring his shoulders. "You're both fine."

"Seph-"

"We should go after him and make sure he does get his shoulder looked at."

With that, Sephiroth swept past Angeal and down the corridor quickly. As he neared Kayli and Jensen he paused, noticing them and frowning at their guilty faces. Kayli hoped desperately that they wouldn't get into a lot of trouble, especially since she didn't know where she stood with the General lately.

It was strange, ever since becoming a SOLDIER Sephiroth had kept his distance from her. Had he simply lost interest because her secret of being a girl had come out, or was there another reason for it? At first Kayli had tried to keep up a friendship and even tried to make him follow through on his promise to mentor her, but her attempts took a year and then she grew closer to Nareau, who offered to be a mentor instead.

After that... she'd pushed Sephiroth out of her mind.

"You here to train?" Sephiroth asked curtly, interrupting her thoughts.

"Yes, Sir," Jensen answered, nodding his head. Sephiroth watched them closely for another moment before continuing on his way and soon enough Angeal followed after him, leaving Kayli and Jensen alone in the corridor between the training rooms.

"That was weird," Kayli sighed, stepping away from the wall.

"I thought he was gonna kill us!" Jensen exclaimed with a short laugh. "And I _was_ kind of hoping you'd jump in there and save us since you're friends with him and all, but I guess that was a long time ago wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Kayli murmured, walking over to one of the doors to a normal training room and stepping through. Jensen came in behind her. "That sounded pretty serious."

"The stuff with the Firsts?" Jensen asked, grabbing his sword from his back and waiting for Kayli to grab hers as well.

"Yeah," she confirmed, taking her sword in her hands and stepping in front of Jensen, spreading her weight evenly between her feet. "I wonder if something bad really_ is_ happening to them, you know?"

"Like what?" Jensen asked, leaning back slightly before striking forward, his sword clanging against Kayli's as she parried his blow and spun to the side.

"Dunno," she replied, swinging a strike of her own which Jensen also swiped aside easily.

"I'm sure they'll be fine," Jensen shrugged calmly as the two of them continued to play-fight. "I mean, they're Firsts. They're practically invincible."

"Nah," Kayli shook her head, grinning as one of the techniques taught to her by Nareau succeeded in making Jensen stumble backwards a few steps. "That's just what ShinRa wants everyone to think."

"Of course I don't mean _literally_ invincible," Jensen rolled his eyes. "But come on, they never get sick or anything."

"Whatever," Kayli sighed. "None of our business anyway."

"Yeah, I guess. So Davis is still giving you a hard time?"

"The worst!" Kayli groaned, slamming her sword into Jensen's hard enough to send him sliding back a few steps before he fought back and she stumbled. "He just won't take a hint!"

"And you're still not telling him what he did wrong?" Jensen grinned.

"Dr Auld says I should," Kayli admitted reluctantly, becoming distracted just enough to give Jensen an opening which he eagerly took. She dodged to the side with seconds to spare. "I just can't help but think that if he can't figure it out by himself he's too stupid to be my friend any more."

"Are you serious? You're a girl! There's no way he's gonna work it out on his own!"

With a particularly powerful strike, Kayli and Jensen's swords went flying out of their hands. They stood opposite each other, panting slightly and letting their swords stay where they'd landed for the time being.

"Why?" Kayli asked.

"Um, well." Jensen folded his arms. "Not even _I_ know what he did wrong."

"Are you serious? You don't know?" Kayli gasped.

"No, but trust me if you tell me I'm going straight to Davis so that you two can finally make up," Jensen warned. "So if you really do want him working it out on his own, keep your mouth shut."

Kayli didn't know what to say to that.

"He totally disregarded my feelings," she said quietly after a moment. "He didn't even _try_ to understand where I was coming from."

"Look, you don't have to tell me," Jensen shrugged. "I just think you should get over it 'cause it's been a year. But hey, you don't have to listen to me."

"Maybe I'm just being stupid," Kayli sighed, walking over to pick up her sword.

"It's your decision, really," Jensen sighed, also moving over to collect his sword from the floor. "I just... to be honest it's really annoying. You've got no idea how many times I've heard Rex complaining about it."

"Rex? Why's_ he_ complaining?" Kayli frowned.

"Because he's friends with both of you! Davis has been his friend since, like, forever as far as I know. And you're also a really close friend but he can't hang out with both of you at the same time any more!" Jensen explained. "He just wishes you'd finally get over it so things can go back to how they used to be."

Kayli fell silent as she considered what Jensen had just told her. She honestly hadn't really considered the effect her ceased friendship with Davis would have on their other friends and no one had said anything to her so until now it hadn't come to her attention at all.

"Maybe I should just get over it," Kayli mumbled. "I mean, he knows I'm with Nareau now. And he _is_ fun to hang around."

Jensen didn't say anything, fighting back a smile as he watched Kayli mull things over in her head.

"I guess we can give it a try, but I'm not making any promis-"

A beeping suddenly rang out in the room and Kayli jumped before scrabbling to grab her PHS out of her pocket. Glancing at the name on the screen which read 'Gemma', she grinned and answered it.

"Hey Gem, what's up?"

"Kayli oh my gosh you have to get down here really quick right now, please just-"

"What? Gemma slow down, what's going on?" Kayli asked, frowning and pressing the phone slightly closer to her ear in an attempt to better understand what her best friend was going on about.

"I can't- I can't explain just get down here!"

"Did something happen?" Kayli asked, beginning to panic. She held a hand up to Jensen when he stepped closer and tried to ask her what was happening.

"Kayli _please_ just get down here!"

"Where, the front desk? Are you at the front desk?" Kayli asked hurriedly, swinging her sword onto her back and gesturing to Jensen to follow her out of the training room quickly. Whatever was happening, she was going to get a head-start now so that Gemma wasn't waiting for too long.

"Yeah, yeah I'm at the front desk. Please Kayli _hurry!_"

"Why can't you tell me what's happened?" Kayli asked fearfully, beginning to jog through the corridors of ShinRa so that she'd get there faster. What on earth could have Gemma sounding so panicked and telling her to get down to the front desk fast?

"I don't have time! But it's an emergency, Kayli! Hurry!"

"No time? What-"

"Just _get_ here Kayli! _Please!_" Kayli heard Gemma begging, beginning to sound like she was on the verge of tears.

"Gemma, I'm coming! Can't you tell me anything? What's happened? Are you hurt? Anything, can you tell me anything at all?" Kayli pleaded desperately, glancing back at Jensen helplessly to see a mirrored expression on his face.

"...It's- it's _Rex_," Gemma finally sobbed into the phone.

The line went dead.


	14. Chapter 13

A/N: Yay for another chapter! I do believe my block is officially over, wouldn't you agree? ;)

Okay guys, I have something to say. This is the final chapter ever. LOL jk :) Okay now I'll be serious. Basically, I thought I'd clear something up as I'm sure you're probably all curious. The original ff7:cc timeline has been messed up in my story. So things aren't going to happen at the same time that they did in CC (this should be obvious as Cloud and Zack met each other way early in Roy). Um yes, buuuut so that you don't get confused (well I hope you won't) I just thought I'd let you know that some things from the original CC timeline will still be happening, just later or earlier or whatever. So PLEASE don't get angry at me because "THAT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN YET" or "YOU'RE SCREWING UP THE TIMELINE" because seriously, the timeline is already screwed. I practically locked Cloud in the labs for two years, remember? Okay now I'm beginning to ramble...

I hope that made at least a LITTLE bit of sense, lol, aaand now you can keep reading. . . well, actually I think there's one more thing I wanted to say. Secrets are being revealed and the plot is thickening (which is driving me insane). I hope you enjoy it and if you ever get lost in this complicated plot, PLEASE feel free to ask me for clarification! :D

Awesome. Onward.

* * *

Kayli dashed through the corridors of ShinRa with Jensen running along behind her. Gemma had sounded so upset, what on earth could have happened? And Rex... was he okay? Had he been injured on his latest mission that Reno had taken him on?

Deciding not to let her mind dwell on all the bad things that could have possibly happened to him, she focused instead on reaching the front desk so that she could then ask Gemma for more information on what had happened.

"Kayli, what did she say?" Jensen asked as they ran.

"It's an emergency," Kayli called back to him. "Something about Rex!"

"Rex? Isn't he on a mission with Reno?" Jensen asked, eyebrowss furrowed.

"Exactly!" Kayli exclaimed. "What if something happened to him? What if- No. Ah, I'm not gonna think that."

They fell into a silence as they continued to run through ShinRa, both of them freaking out without speaking so that hopefully they wouldn't cause each other to panic any more than they already were.

When they finally rounded the final corner and found themselves in the reception area which contained the front desk, Kayli skidded to a stop and stared.

Gemma glanced up from where she was kneeling on the ground above Rex, eyes wide.

"Kayli, you're finally here," she mumbled.

"What happened? Is he okay?" Kayli asked, walking over and trying to be calm about the situation. Her eyes travelled over Rex's form, trying to see what was wrong with him. He was lying in an awkward position on the floor and his face was screwed up in pain.

"Kay-Kayli? Is'at you?" he murmured.

"Yeah, it's me," Kayli whispered, dropping to her knees and biting her lip nervously. So far she couldn't see any blood anywhere, so what was wrong?

Suddenly, with no warning at all, Rex flung himself at her and wrapped her in a hug, laughing.

"Your face, Kayli!" he exclaimed.

Kayli didn't quite know what to say. Rex was... fine?

"You-you made me think you were gonna die!" Kayli screamed, punching his back and then pushing him away from her. "You idiot! Don't you ever do that a-" Kayli's words faded out and suddenly she was screaming, covering her mouth as she stared at him.

Gemma was practically rolling on the floor in laughter.

"_Rex you've got two arms!_" Kayli squealed.

"Surprise," Rex grinned, raising his new, metal arm into the air and twirling it around a bit. "I did so well in the mission that they sent me straight off to get this done before even coming back here. Isn't that cool?"

"Rex, this is so much more than cool," Kayli said, shaking her head in disbelief as she and Rex finally stood up off the floor. "You've been waiting for this for... ages!"

"Sorry for tricking you," Gemma laughed, also standing up once she had calmed down a bit more. "Rex just wanted to make a big thing of it so I agreed to help freak you out."

"Wow, thanks," Kayli rolled her eyes. Turning to Rex she said, "So are you up for an arm wrestle yet?"

"Are you kidding? I don't want to break your arm," Rex teased, gently giving her a shove with his metal hand. Kayli couldn't stop staring at it and was still shaking her head slowly in disbelief. This was incredible.

"Do you want me to call Davis, now?" Gemma asked Rex.

"Yeah, should we freak him out as well?" Rex asked with a grin.

"Whoa wait," Kayli said with a frown. "How did you even hide your arm from me when I first came in? I mean..."

"Well you were looking for injuries, weren't you? It's easy to hide something from someone when they're not looking for it," Rex shrugged. "I just kinda lay on it partially and your brain did the rest for me."

"Great," Kayli groaned. "You make me sound stupid."

"Well, do you wanna see Davis make a fool of himself as well?" Rex asked, knowing that Kayli would jump at the chance simply because of the way he had worded it.

"Alright, come on," Kayli rolled her eyes with a smile. "Go on Gemma, call him."

Gemma giggled and pulled out her phone, dialling Davis' number before holding it up to her ear and waiting patiently. Rex lay himself back down on the floor and Kayli smiled as he tucked his metal arm under himself slightly, scrunching his face up again in the way that he had done when Kayli first ran in.

Glancing back at Jensen, Kayli grinned at him. Her one-eyed friend grinned back and moved slightly closer, preparing to look worried about Rex for when Davis would come in.

"Davis? It's Gemma," Gemma said into the phone, shaking all her laughs out of her system and feigning terror. "You've got to get to the front desk right now!"

"Tell him to _hurry_!" Kayli exclaimed, hoping that Davis would be able to hear her in the background and therefore be even more worried about the situation.

"Davis there's no time to explain," Gemma said quickly, shaking her head even though he couldn't see her. "Just get down here _please_ … it's Rex! Just, please Davis you've got to get here!"

Quickly hanging up, Gemma burst out laughing.

"He is gonna be _so_ worried," Kayli grinned.

"Yeah, I know!" Gemma laughed. "Anyway, he said he wasn't far away so we need to stop making jokes!"

Kayli and Jensen nodded, moving closer to where Rex was lying on the ground still. Gemma knelt down beside him again and then they all waited. And waited. And waited.

"I'm coming! What happened? Rex! Is he okay? What-"

Tearing into the room and racing towards them, Davis stared in horror at the anguished expression on his best friends face.

"Rex, what happened?" he exclaimed, dropping down beside him and raking his eyes over his friends body, searching for blood or painfully twisted limbs. There was a moment of silence.

"D-Davis..." Rex whispered, lifting his right hand to grab onto his friends shoulder weakly. "I-I-"

"You what?" Davis asked fearfully.

Rex groaned, scrunching his face up and closing his eyes before trying to relax again. His breathing was strained and then slowly he opened on eye again, looking up at Davis. He grinned.

"Rex?" Davis asked. "Are you... concussed?"

"Surprise!" Rex yelled, freeing his left arm and bringing it up to grab onto Davis' other shoulder.

Davis let out a yell and jumped back from his friend, scrambling up onto his feet and staring down in utter shock. Rex wiggled his metal fingers at Davis, still grinning, and finally Kayli, Gemma and Jensen burst out into laughter.

"Rex you've got another arm!" Davis gasped.

"Oh," Rex frowned. "Think it's one too many?" Laughing again, he got up off the floor and shrugged innocently at Davis. "Come on, what did you think I was gonna do?"

"Maybe just saying 'I got my new arm' would have been a bit nicer," Davis pointed out with raised eyebrows.

"Where's the fun in that?" Rex chuckled.

"They got me too," Kayli grinned. "But isn't it great? I mean, he's finally got two arms again!"

For the first time, Davis seemed to notice Kayli was in the same room and wasn't screaming at him in anger. He smiled.

"This calls for a celebration," he announced. "We should all go out for a drink-"

"And get busted by the higher-ups for drinking? No thanks, not when I've only just proved myself," Rex laughed.

"Well we've gotta do _something_," Davis exclaimed.

"Oh, I know!" Gemma grinned. "Why don't we all meet up tonight in someone's apartment room and just hang out together?"

"Yeah!" Kayli agreed enthusiastically. "We can invite the whole gang so it'll be just like old times!"

"That's a great idea!" Rex beamed. "You guys are too awesome, seriously."

"Anything for a friend," Kayli told him happily. "So, it'll be all of us of course. Plus Jinx, Alec, Edvard and Cloud. Oh wait, do you think Cloud will be able to come hang out? I mean, he's always with Hojo nowadays."

"We can always try," Gemma shrugged. "If he can't make it then maybe we could postpone it for another day... but we'll do our best to make it happen tonight, yeah? What time do you guys think we should all meet up and in who's room?"

"Seven?" Rex suggested. "We can ask Jinx and Alec if we can use their room just because it's bigger and we'll all fit a lot easier. It shouldn't be too hard for them to get Dios to agree to leave the room for the night. Or, you know, I don't really mind if he joins in either. Hey Kayli, did you wanna invite Nareau to come along?"

"Sure!" Kayli nodded. "He'd love it."

"This is gonna be a blast," Davis spoke up, glancing at Kayli nervously. He hoped the night wouldn't be too awkward with them in the same room together, but it was about time! They hadn't all gotten together ever since they began being accepted into the different areas of ShinRa.

"Look," Kayli said. "I'm gonna go find Cloud and Edvard to tell them what's going on, alright?"

"I'll call you with more details later," Gemma told her. Kayli nodded and began walking away, completely oblivious to the sudden look of remembrance that crossed Gemma's face as she glanced back at Davis. The two stared at each other for a moment without speaking.

"Um, Kayli? Can you hang on a second?" Gemma called nervously. "I have to-"

"It won't take long," Kayli called over her shoulder. "Figure out who's bringing food or something while I'm gone."

With that, she disappeared out of the reception room and was gone from sight.

"That failed," Davis pointed out.

"_Thank _you, Davis," Gemma spat at him with a groan. "I didn't see you trying very hard!"

"Hey, I tried telling her earlier today but she wouldn't listen to me!"

"Um, what's going on?" Rex asked, scratching his head with his metal hand. Gemma and Davis glanced back at him, then noticed that Jensen was looking curious as well.

Davis opened his mouth to speak, but Gemma quickly cut in, "No, Davis."

"Why not? They deserve to know," Davis frowned.

"Kayli needs to be the first person we tell," Gemma said firmly. "That's that."

Davis rolled his eyes but gave in, shrugging helplessly at Rex and Jensen. Thankfully the topic changed fairly quickly as Jensen asked what was happening with food and the friends began discussing who would bring what. That night was going to be so much fun and they all knew it.

* * *

When Kayli reached the science floor of ShinRa she immediately began searching for Hojo's private lab. She hadn't been there too often, although she'd visited Edvard enough to vaguely remember where the room was.

When she reached the door that she was fairly certain lead into Hojo's lab, she knocked lightly and then waited.

At first there was no response. After a moment, however, the door opened a crack and Kayli saw an eye peering out at her. She smiled and waved, recognising Edvard's eye and hoping she hadn't come at the wrong time.

"Kayli? What do you want?" Edvard whispered.

"I was just wondering if you and Cloud would be free tonight for a party? Rex has his new prosthetic arm and we want to celebrate," Kayli explained, also in a fairly quiet tone of voice.

"I don't know if tonight's such a great time..." Edvard trailed off and glance behind himself again briefly.

"Why not? Is something wrong?" Kayli asked with a frown.

"Uh, nothing I can't handle."

The sound of retching reached Kayli's ears and she raised an eyebrow. Was one of Hojo's test subjects being sick? Had Edvard been ordered to stay there and clean it up?

"Well, what about tomorrow night?" Kayli asked.

"No, look," Edvard said with a sigh. "You guys go and have fun, alright? Cloud and I are gonna be really busy for a few days. Don't wait for us, just go have your party. Tell Rex I'm happy for him."

With that, Edvard shut the door.

Kayli couldn't shake the feeling that Edvard was behaving very strangely and she stood in front of the door for a few minutes, just thinking. Should she barge in and demand an explanation? She didn't want to get in trouble with Hojo in case he was also in there, but she also didn't just want to leave Edvard to fend for himself in the lab.

Also, why on earth wouldn't _Cloud_ be able to come to the party that night? Did Hojo have him on a strict exercise program that took up all of his time? Unless...

Bracing herself for whatever she might find, Kayli flung the door open.

Cloud, with a face so pale that Kayli was surprised he was conscious, was being helped into a wheelchair by Edvard. His whole body was trembling and his eyes were blood-shot.

"Eddie," Kayli murmured, not knowing what to say.

Spinning around, Edvard stared at her in surprise. Biting his lip nervously, he glanced over at a closed door towards the back of the room they were currently in. Seeing that it was still shut securely, he turned back to Kayli.

"Alright," he whispered. "I was going to do this by myself but now that you're here and you're obviously not going to leave until you have an explanation, I need your help."

"What do you need me to do?" Kayli asked quickly, deciding that her questions could be answered later if Edvard really did need help right away with something. Edvard stepped around to the back of Cloud's wheelchair and pushed him over to Kayli.

"Please, take him to the infirmary," he pleaded.

"Of course," Kayli nodded. "But... why do you need me to do it?"

"I _was_ going to do it myself," Edvard said, glancing over his shoulder again. "But Hojo gave me direct orders to keep him here. I can't stand by and watch him poison Cloud so I was going to disobey him, but if _you_ take him maybe I won't be in as much trouble."

"What has Hojo _done_ to him?" Kayli asked in disbelief, looking down to see Cloud holding his stomach and swaying slightly.

"He mixed a mild poison with some mako and injected it," Edvard said quickly. "It's not fatal, just please get him to the infirmary! He needs to start recovering as soon as possible so that he can then take the SOLDIER exam again."

"He can take the exam now?" Kayli asked, finding it hard to take so much information in all at once.

"Yes Kayli, you can grill me later," Edvard said, turning the wheelchair around so that the handles faced Kayli. "Just go, please!"

Nodding firmly, Kayli took hold of the wheelchair and pulled him out of Hojo's lab, walking quickly down the corridor as Edvard closed the door behind her. She'd have to take the lift to get to the infirmary, but that was okay. They'd get there soon enough and then the nurses would be able to start working to get the poison out of his body before he got even worse than he already was.

Once she was sure that Cloud was going to be alright, she'd go back to Edvard and find out what had happened.

* * *

Edvard stood perfectly still as he waited to hear the sound of Kayli wheeling Cloud down the corridor. Hojo was still in the back room behind a closed door, working on an experiment he hadn't been willing to let Edvard observe. This was working to his advantage, however, as now was the first chance he'd had to get Cloud out of the lab without Hojo knowing right away.

Hopefully by the time Hojo _did_ realise, Cloud would be recovered and trying out for SOLDIER, escaping the scientist's clutches and gaining protection from people such as Lazard who wouldn't allow Hojo to do whatever he wanted.

When he couldn't hear the sound of the wheelchair any longer, Edvard made his way over to a samples cabinet at the side of the room. The doors on the cabinet were metal and not see-through, but Edvard knew the samples were behind them because of previous work he'd helped Hojo with.

Every single person who was or had ever been a part of ShinRa had a vial inside this cabinet which contained a sample of their DNA. Edvard was now looking for one in particular.

Opening the doors of the cabinet and scanning his eyes across the labels on the vials as quickly as he could, he soon found the section with last names beginning with 'T' as the vials were organised in alphabetical order. His search wasn't over yet, though, as the cabinet was very deep and the section of vials with 'T' names was quite large. Trying to work quickly, Edvard began sifting through them.

His heart was pounding in his chest and he kept glancing over his shoulder at the closed door at the back of the room. If Hojo came out now he would be really mad at Edvard for going through the supplies without asking first, and after Edvard had stood up to Cloud he was already on rocky ground with the older scientist.

Just as his eyes locked onto the vial labelled '_Taison, Davis_' and his fingers picked it up, the door at the front of the room slammed open with a bang.

Terrified but still holding onto the vial, Edvard spun around from the cabinet and shut the doors behind his back, staring in surprise at Sephiroth, who stood before him in a rage.

"Would someone feel like explaining to me why the cadet Cloud Strife is-"

After glancing around the room and seeing that Edvard was the only one there, Sephiroth calmed slightly. Still, his eyes remained narrowed and he stepped towards the scientist-in-training slowly. Edvard's hands began to sweat and he slowly pushed the vial onto the bench behind him, hoping Sephiroth wouldn't notice.

"Where's Hojo?" Sephiroth asked threateningly. Edvard gestured to the door at the back of the room before wiping his sweaty hands on his trousers.

Sephiroth had been to see Hojo more and more often the past two years, either for mako dosages or because he was experiencing things which he didn't understand and wanted Hojo to explain to him. Many of these times, Sephiroth had turned up with a terrible temper, which was why Edvard was now cowering in front of him – the young scientist had seen in the past what an angry Sephiroth could do.

"What's he doing back there?" Sephiroth asked, flashing his eyes at Edvard and making the young man skitter to the side. Sephiroth smirked and turned so that he was standing beside him, folding his arms.

"U-um," Edvard mumbled, feeling nervous now that Sephiroth had deliberately chosen to stand by his side. "He's working on an experiment."

"Is he now," Sephiroth said with a sigh, turning away from Edvard to face the cabinet which had only recently been opened and closed.

"Yes, he is," Edvard nodded and walked to the centre of the room. Hopefully if didn't act nervous about Sephiroth being so close to the vial he needed, Sephiroth wouldn't even notice it at all. "Do you want me to get him for you?"

"No, don't bother," Sephiroth said, shaking his head but continuing to face the cabinet. After a long moment of silence, he spun and fixed his steely gaze on Edvard. "Ask him to call me when he's free. I just need another mako dosage."

Edvard nodded, biting back a sigh of relief as Sephiroth began walking towards the door. Only when the 1st Class SOLDIER was gone from the room completely and the door was once again shut did Edvard allow himself to fully relax.

He would have to act quickly now to smuggle the vial out of the room and to the infirmary before Hojo finished with his experiment. He had told Kayli to take Cloud there because he knew it would give him time to also collect the needed sample of DNA. Yes, he may have deliberately lead Kayli to believe the nurses would be able to help Cloud, but to be honest Edvard didn't know if they would. With Davis Taison's DNA sample, however, Cloud would be fine in no time at all.

Walking over to the cabinet anxiously, Edvard looked down at the bench where he had pushed the vial onto while facing Sephiroth.

It wasn't there.

Gasping and wrenching open the cabinet doors, Edvard fixed his eyes upon the empty space where he had taken the vial from. So it wasn't on the bench _or_ back in the cabinet. That only left one other possibility.

Sephiroth had stolen it.

Letting out a yell and slamming his fist down on the bench, he tried to calm himself down. He _knew_ it had been a bad idea to tell Sephiroth what he had found out about Davis' DNA in the first place, but there was no one else he trusted to keep the information from Hojo and if he hadn't then Davis would be back in his dad's shop now. It had been _Sephiroth_ who was able to pull the strings and arrange for ShinRa to 'buy' Davis back without having to give a reason why.

And now, unless Edvard could get Davis into the lab for another sample really soon or steal the vial back from the General, Cloud might not make it through the effects of the poison.

Edvard squared his shoulders and closed the cabinet doors again.


	15. Chapter 14

A/N: I don't know what to say in these comments right now. Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm :)

Please review!

* * *

"You heard his voice?" Dr Auld asked with a slight frown.

"Yeah," Roy mumbled with a small nod, staring down at his lap as he sat in the counsellors office. "In my head."

"But you're positive there was no one else in the room with you?"

Roy nodded again and sighed shakily, running a hand through his hair. "Am I- am I losing it? I mean I... I was so caught up in it that I didn't hear Owen! If I had known it was him I wouldn't have hurt him!"

"Are you sure?" Dr Auld asked gently.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Roy snapped, looking up to glare angrily at the man.

"Roy," Dr Auld said with a sigh. "We both know you've hurt him in the past and that your PSD alters your perception of what you're doing. Maybe it was your PSD that caused you to attack Owen."

"You know what? Screw this," Roy spat, standing up and moving towards the door.

"So you can go out there and risk hurting someone else?" Dr Auld asked, his words making Roy hesitate right before the door. "Please Roy, I'm only trying to help."

"I know you are! But I already spoke to you before going to the infirmary so what's the point in talking more now?" Roy asked, turning around again.

"Before you were sent to the infirmary my aim was simply to calm you down enough so that none of the medical staff would be in any danger-"

"I _was_ calm!"

"Roy! You were shaking and crying," Dr Auld said firmly. "That does _not_ count as calm in my book."

"Great. So now what? You're gonna tell me I'm even more insane than I was before?" Roy asked.

"I don't think that's true," Dr Auld said with a shake of his head. "I think you were probably sleep-walking and dreaming. That then triggered your PSD and when Owen came to find you, you attacked him."

"That's not what happened."

"Roy," Dr Auld sighed. "Do you remember when we spoke about how it might help your PSD to lessen if you joined ShinRa and were able to fight on a regular basis?"

"Yes." Roy frowned.

"Well, if you want me to, I'll speak to Director Lazard and see about him letting you go on the next mission to Wutai. What do you think of that?" Dr Auld asked, waiting patiently as Roy considered the idea.

"Wutai? You want to send me to Wutai?" Roy raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe if you're in a proper battle situation sooner it'll have a greater effect on your PSD."

"That's it? I smash a bathroom and you send me to Wutai because you think it's my PSD?" Roy asked in annoyance, clenching his hands into fists. "I told you, I could hear him and I _wasn't_ dreaming."

"Roy, sometimes dreams can seem real," Dr Auld said gently. "You've got to learn to be able to tell the two things apart."

"I wasn't dreaming!" Roy yelled, taking a threatening step towards his counsellor. Dr Auld raised his hands in surrender quickly, gazing evenly at Roy until he stepped back again.

"I want you to go back to your room now and focus on calming down again," the counsellor said. "You've had a rough night and now you need to rest. We'll talk more about taking a mission to Wutai later, alright?"

Roy glared at Dr Auld, feeling betrayed because he wasn't being listened to. He knew he hadn't been dreaming but for some reason Dr Auld wouldn't take that as an answer. What was wrong with him? He was supposed to be trying to help, not pushing Roy's problems aside and pretending they didn't exist!

Not saying another word, Roy spun around and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him loudly. He allowed his feet to carry him away from the counselling office and down many corridors, not caring where he was as he felt a rage burning within him.

After walking a long way from Dr Auld's office, Roy found himself slowing. What if he was right? What if it had all been a dream? That was definitely a better option than thinking he'd gone insane and was hallucinating the sound of Liam's voice.

The rage within him faded and Roy let out a sigh through his nose, shoving his hands into his pockets. Glancing over his shoulder and then back in front of himself, he frowned. Where was he? Still on the same floor, but obviously in an area not often used by people as Roy couldn't see anyone else at all. All the doors around him were closed.

He was about to turn and walk in the opposite direction again to try and find his way back to somewhere familiar when a door right beside him opened slightly.

"Hello?" Roy asked cautiously, looking at it. There was no light on inside the room so Roy stepped closer, curious as to who had opened the door and why they hadn't come out yet. "Who's there?"

With no warning at all, an arm shot out of the darkness and took a hold of Roy, yanking him through the doorway before slamming him up against a wall. A hand closed over his throat and Roy thrashed, trying to fight it off but finding it nearly impossible. Whoever it was that had grabbed him was _much_ stronger than he was.

"Stop struggling," his captor whispered, sending shivers up and down his spine. The voice stilled his movements for a moment before he lashed out one more time, managing to push the other man off just enough to fling an arm out at the wall and find the light switch, turning it on.

Roy swore.

Standing in front of him with a murderous smirk on his face was Liam. Not a reflection in a mirror, but an actual person. Liam had come to find him.

"Surprise," Liam hissed, grabbing Roy's throat again and squeezing. "Although you _should_ have expected it."

"W-what?" Roy gasped, struggling to breathe past Liam's tight grip.

"You told me you wanted to become a SOLDIER," Liam reminded him. "So once I realised you weren't dead I knew exactly where to find you."

Releasing Roy's neck slightly, Liam waited for some sort of response.

Coughing and choking, Roy tried to think of something to say but came up blank. Nothing was coming to his mind except images, memories and feelings of that day when he was nine years old. Was that why Liam was here? To finish the job?

"Got nothing to say, have you? That's probably a good thing," Liam said, shoving his face close to Roy's and sneering. "I've got a lot to say to _you_."

"Get- get off me! Let go-"

"Really?" Liam laughed, tightening his grip on Roy's neck once again to stop him from being able to continue speaking. "You can't order me around. Don't ever try to ever again."

Roy scrabbled at Liam's hand over his throat desperately, trying to pry it off but not getting anywhere. It was impossible. Liam didn't even seem to be able to feel Roy's scratching nails against his skin as he didn't flinch of shift at all.

"When that counsellor of yours brings up the subject of going to Wutai again, I want you to accept," Liam snarled firmly. Roy began to panic, wondering how on earth Liam knew about the mission to Wutai _and_ that he had a counsellor. "That way you'll be able to abandon ShinRa on foreign soil. Then you're to join a rebel group and fight back. Bring ShinRa down. Understood?"

He could barely feel anything anymore. He had long since ceased being able to breathe and now he could see spots appearing in front of his vision. The only feeling he _was_ vaguely aware of was a sharp pain in his chest which sent fear all through him, reminding of what Liam was capable of.

"Don't ignore me, _brother_," Liam mocked, finally letting go of Roy and causing him to crumple straight down to the ground in an instant. "Give up your plan to come back and save Kayli, she's happier without you."

Roy heaved, trying to pull breaths into his lungs. Leaning his head back against the wall behind him he looked up at Liam, taking in the superior expression on his brothers face as he stared down.

"You know," Liam murmured then, squatting down and gripping Roy's face in his hand roughly. "Those scars really suit you. They show on the outside just how messed up you are on the _inside_."

Laughing, Liam let him go and stood up.

"If you tell anyone I'm here I'll kill Kayli, do you understand?"

"But you love-"

"Do you _understand?_"

Roy fell silent again and nodded slowly. He didn't speak again as Liam walked to the door and left the room. He stayed where he was, fighting against a panic attack that was threatening to take over as well as still trying to get his breathing back to normal.

Liam had followed him to ShinRa just to tell him to get out? Why couldn't Liam just leave him alone now that he was so far away from Kayli?

How-How did Liam know what he was planning? How did Liam know about his counsellor and the mission to Wutai?

Choking on his breaths of air, Roy slid sideways to lie on the floor before curling up into himself and letting his tears fall. Liam was right. He was messed up on the inside as well as the outside. That was why no one wanted to talk to him.

Kayli... Kayli would accept him, wouldn't she? Besides, they were twins. She had to accept him. He'd find her. She still loved him, he was sure of it. First he'd go to Wutai, just so that Liam would think he was doing what he was told and would go back home. Then when Roy came back to ShinRa he wouldn't have to worry about him again.

Never... right? Not until he went back to get Kayli, that is.

Kayli. _Kayli_. His twin. His sister. He'd protect her. From Liam.

Roy's thoughts blurred together and he covered his face with his hands poorly, sobbing.

He'd get up again, later. For now- for now he-

* * *

Kayli looked up as the door opened and she stood when she saw who it was, quickly walking over to Edvard.

"Eddie," she exclaimed. "What's going on? The nurses don't know what to do and-"

"Where's Davis?" Edvard asked. "Can you call him for me? Tell him to get up here right away."

"What? No!" Kayli snapped angrily. "Tell me what happened to Cloud and how we can help him!"

"The only hope for Cloud right now is if Davis gets here as soon as possible!" Edvard shouted, clenching his teeth angrily. "So either call him or tell me where he is!"

"How exactly can Davis help Cloud?" Kayli asked in a disbelieving tone, frowning and putting her hands on her hips. She glanced back at the bed Cloud had been placed on and her expression softened slightly at the sight of his pale face.

"You've got to trust me," Edvard said. "Please."

Kayli stayed silent for a moment, studying Edvard's face closely as she tried to determine whether he was telling the truth or not. She couldn't think of any reason why they would need Davis to help Cloud, but Edvard certainly looked serious. And Cloud was really sick, so if Davis _could_ help they'd need him right away.

Sighing, she gave in and pulled her PHS out of her pocket.

"I'll call him," she said, finding the number quickly and then selecting the 'call' option. Thankfully it wasn't very long before there was an answer.

"Kayli? What's up?"

"Don't get any ideas," Kayli said quickly, not wanting Davis to get carried away thinking she was calling to make up with him. "I need you to get to the infirmary right now. No dawdling and no questions. Get here now."

Not even waiting for Davis to agree, Kayli hung up and slipped the phone back into her pocket. Edvard sighed in relief and moved over to Cloud's bed, looking down at him to make sure the blond hadn't gotten worse.

"Okay, spill," Kayli demanded, folding her arms and also moving over to Cloud's bed. "What happened to him and what's Davis got to do with it?"

Edvard was silent for a moment as he considered the questions and how best to answer them. Finally, he looked up at her and nodded, letting her know he was agreeing to answer.

"Hojo's been lying to Cloud," he began slowly. "He made Cloud train and work hard so that his body would be able to handle mako, and that worked, but Hojo was never planning on telling Cloud that it had worked. He wanted to keep Cloud as a lab rat. So... I told him I wasn't going to stand by and watch any more. I told him to inject mako into Cloud but Hojo added poison to the mako to make it appear as if Cloud's body still couldn't handle mako."

"That is _sick_," Kayli gasped. "He poisoned Cloud just so that he would have an excuse to keep him in the lab and continue experimenting on him?"

"Yeah, exactly," Edvard agreed, looking down at his feet. "And he ordered me not to take Cloud out of there but I am _not_ going to stand by and watch Cloud's dreams go down the drain. I had to do something."

"Right," Kayli nodded. "But what does Davis have to do with this?"

"...It's his DNA," Edvard mumbled quietly, glancing around as if he was telling her a secret that he didn't want anyone overhearing.

"What about it?" Kayli asked.

"It's different," Edvard continued quietly, lifting his eyes to meet Kayli's. "The structure contains stronger bonding qualities which-"

"Whoa," Kayli raised a hand and shook her head. "No, please, say it simpler. I don't have a clue what the bonding qualities and structure mean in regards to this situation."

"Right, sorry," Edvard said, pushing his glasses further up his nose. "Basically, once Davis is here I'm going to take a sample of his blood and inject it into Cloud. Then his own DNA structure will adapt and strengthen due to the stronger bonding qualities from Davis' DNA found in the blood... are you following me?"

"I think so, yeah," Kayli said, biting her lip.

"Okay, so as Cloud's DNA strengthens it'll also strengthen his immune system which will then be able to fight the poison in his body. Then he'll be fine," Edvard finished.

Kayli was silent as she tried to understand everything.

"Right, I have to admit I'm still a bit confused. Isn't there another way to make Cloud's DNA stronger? Or to just simply flush the poison out of his body? I mean, why can't materia be used or something else like that?" Kayli asked.

"I _really_ don't know how to explain all of this properly," Edvard admitted sadly. "I don't fully understand it myself because Davis' DNA is so … so strange. But no, materia won't help with this. The poison is something Hojo cooked up himself and because it was added to mako, the mako has made it almost immune to the effects of materia. The slight effect materia _would_ have on it isn't nearly enough to stop it, though."

"So Davis' DNA really is the only way to make Cloud better?" Kayli asked.

"That's right," Edvard nodded with a sigh.

"How did you find out about it in the first place?" Kayli asked, pulling up a chair and sitting on it, still trying to take in everything she'd been told.

"There are DNA samples of everyone in ShinRa in the labs," Edvard explained. "I found out about his DNA fairly early on, just when Hojo was teaching me things. He'd set me down at the side of the room to go over information on all us new cadets since he thought it would be really boring. Back then he was still trying to get rid of me. Anyway... he didn't know about Davis because he never read the notes properly."

"Does he know now?" Kayli asked.

"No," Edvard shook his head. "I had a bad feeling about what he'd do if he ever found out so I... I stole the file."

"You stole a file from the labs?" Kayli squeaked, mouth wide open. "You obviously had far more guts back then than we ever knew!"

Edvard grinned and looked away, shrugging.

Interrupted by a beep from her PHS, Kayli shifted so she could pull it out of her pocket and flicked it open to read the message she had just received.

"No way," Kayli gasped.

"What?" Edvard asked, instantly frowning and stepping slightly closer to her.

"It's from Davis," she said.

"What does it say?" Edvard asked desperately.

"He wrote, 'I can't make it right now. Sephiroth ran into me on the way here and when I told him where I was going he gave me a direct order not to. What's going on?'"

Kayli looked up to see Edvard staring at her, his mouth wide open in horror and his eyes widened as well.

"What else don't I know yet?" Kayli asked quietly.

Swallowing and trying to compose himself, Edvard got his own chair to sit on as well. He glanced at Cloud again, frowning at the still-pale face that wasn't getting any better. At least he was asleep for now.

Then he turned to Kayli and took a deep breath.

"Did you ever wonder why ShinRa paid for Davis to come back when his Dad tried to take him away for good?" Edvard asked.

"Actually, yes," Kayli nodded slowly.

"I told Sephiroth about the DNA," Edvard said. "I thought I could trust him – more than Hojo at least. And I wanted someone else to be there to help make sure that Hojo didn't find out about it and try to turn Davis into a lab rat as well."

"That makes sense," Kayli said. "But why would Sephiroth stop Davis from coming here?"

"He knows about the DNA! You've got to admit he's been acting really weird lately," Edvard said, and Kayli couldn't but nod in agreement to that. "Remember how I told you there were samples of everyone's DNA in the labs?"

"Yeah."

"I was going to use _that _to make Cloud better, but when you were taking Cloud to the infirmary Sephiroth came in and stole it. I didn't realise until he'd left. Anyway, I don't know _what_ he's up to but he must be trying to keep it to himself for some reason," Edvard shrugged.

"So he's just going to stand by and let Cloud get worse?"

"I guess so," Edvard sighed dejectedly. "Unless we can somehow persuade him to help us with Cloud. I just... I'm not sure where I stand with him right now and I don't want him telling Hojo I went behind his back. If Sephiroth gets angry with me he'll probably even tell Hojo that I stole the files back then."

Kayli folded her arms and looked down at the floor, thinking over what she was going to say even though she knew there was no other choice.

Looking up at Edvard again, she nodded decisively. "I'll talk to him."

"Really?" Edvard asked.

"I have to, it's the only chance we've got," Kayli shrugged. "Besides, we both know we can't just stand around and do nothing while Cloud's like this. Maybe if I can get Sephiroth to agree, that party I mentioned to you before can still happen with _all_ of us there."

"Kayli you're a lifesaver," Edvard gushed.

"Let's hope so," Kayli nodded, glancing down at Cloud again before clenching her hands into fists and leaving the room.

She had to go find Sephiroth.


	16. Chapter 15

A/N: Whew, only just over a month ... ^^;

Well, hopefully it was worth the wait :) I'm quite proud of this chapter, to be honest, and I hope you guys like it as well! I'm getting excited again (when am I not excited? oh right... when I have writers block...) but I can't really make any promises about when the next chapter will be up. I have so many writing projects right nowww *cries*.

Anyway, enough of my self-pity, lol, enjoy the chapter and please leave a review because I LOVE REVIEWS! =D

* * *

"Are you okay?"

The words came through a thick haze, slowly bringing Roy back to the room he was lying in. His back was against the wall and he kept his eyes closed for a moment, not wanting to face the world. Not again.

"Roy come on, wake up," the voice continued desperately and suddenly a hand was on his shoulder, gently shaking him. He snapped his eyes open quickly and stared up, taking in Owen's face and breathing a sigh of relief. Just Owen. Not Liam.

Pushing himself up slightly, Roy breathed heavily. His eyes felt swollen and he lowered his head to try and hide them from Owen even though his younger brother had most definitely already seen. He didn't want Owen to worry about him any more than he already did. And he couldn't risk Owen asking questions and finding out about Liam. Owen didn't even know the truth behind his scars yet, still believing it to be a tractor accident.

"What are you doing here?" Owen asked softly, helping Roy to stand up. "I was so worried."

"Right," Roy scoffed, shaking his head as he leant heavily against the wall. He didn't believe for a second that Owen could be capable of worrying about him after everything that had happened. He had attacked him yet again, so why was the younger boy still here?

"I thought you were meant to be with Dr Auld," Owen changed the subject. "Are you hiding from him?"

"No, our session finished," Roy replied, pushing away from the wall. "What time is it?"

"One o'clock," Owen told him, then asked, "Weren't you meant to be there all day?"

Roy tried to walk past Owen but the younger boy stepped in his way and stopped him, squaring his shoulders and trying to look firm. He obviously wasn't letting Roy go without an explanation.

But Roy suddenly let out a small gasp as he looked down and saw the bandage around Owen's right arm where it had been cut by the glass on the bathroom floor. Looking up, he also noticed that Owen's nose had an ugly bruise across it. And it was all his fault. He had done that to Owen.

If Liam could threaten to kill Kayli so easily when she was the one he loved so much, did that mean that there was a possibility Roy would become like that with Owen?

"Roy?" Owen questioned, extending his fingers to brush his brothers arm.

"Don't touch me," Roy growled out, jerking away from Owen roughly. He couldn't bare the thought of seeing Owen get hurt again because of him and knew that the only way to stop it from happening was to avoid him.

"What's wrong?" Owen asked, confused as to why a sudden darkness had come over his brother's face. "Did you take your pills this morning?"

"No, no I didn't," Roy said angrily, taking a step towards Owen and making the boy dart back, terrified. "I was in the infirmary this morning. Or don't you remember that? Don't you remember what I did?"

"Roy..." Owen gulped. "Roy, calm down."

Shaking his head, Roy let out a dry laugh. "If only calming down was the answer."

Owen furrowed his eyebrows fearfully, trying to decide what the best thing to do right now was. Should he leave Roy by himself or stay and risk being injured again? If he left Roy by himself he might end up hurting someone else, so it was only a moment later that Owen made the decision to stay by his brother's side. He had to help. It didn't matter if he got hurt.

"Come with me," Owen said gently, reaching out slowly for Roy again. "We'll go get your pills so that the urge will go away."

"I don't have an urge," Roy snapped, turning away from Owen. "Not yet, anyway."

"Then why are you being like this?" Owen asked angrily. "If you're completely aware of what you're doing, why won't you listen to me? I want to help!"

"You can't help me!" Roy yelled, turning back to Owen in a flash. "You'll only get hurt again!"

Owen straightened up, trying to appear fearless as he was closely watched by his older brother. "I don't care," he said.

"You don't care? You don't care that I attacked you for no reason? It's not going to stop, Owen. It will _always_ be like this-"

"I don't care," Owen repeated fiercely, interrupting Roy and clenching his hands into fists. "We're brothers, right? So I have to stick by you and make sure you don't hurt anyone else. If that means I'm going to be your punching bag, so be it. That's my job."

A silence fell between them for a moment and Roy felt the remaining strength leave his limbs, collapsing back against the wall. Hot tears splashed down his face and he shook his head quickly, his chest beginning to heave from silent sobs. He didn't want Owen to see him like this! He didn't want Owen to know how damaged he really was.

But Owen wasn't going anywhere.

"It's okay, Roy," Owen whispered, moving over to help support his older brother and gently lower him down to sit on the ground again. "You don't have to do this alone."

"K-Kayli," Roy gulped, squeezing his eyes shut. "I need Kayli."

"You'll find her again one day," Owen said encouragingly. "I'll even help you search!"

"No." The word was harsh and bitter.

Owen frowned and sat down beside his brother, softly asking, "Why not?"

Roy turned his face away, not wanting to answer the question. What would Owen say when he found out that he had been lied to all this time about Roy's scars? What would he say when he found out Roy wasn't the first one to have PSD? What would he say when he found out Roy was on the path to becoming exactly like Liam?

Maybe it would scare him away. Then he'd be safe.

Scaring Owen into leaving him was probably a good idea. At least then he wouldn't have to worry about Owen saying he was willing to be a punching bag any more.

"You don't know the truth," he murmured. "About me." One hand vaguely gestured at his face, indicating his scars, and Owen watched him in utter silence. Obviously the boy was very interested to find out what he didn't know.

"So tell me."

And yet, even though he wanted to scare Owen way so that he would be safe, he didn't want to be left alone. He knew it was something he would have to face eventually, but so soon? To be honest, though, he had been prepared to be on his own when first deciding to leave for ShinRa. It would have been better if Owen hadn't come with him.

"I've never seen a tractor in my life." The words tumbled out before he could think things through and he squeezed his eyes shut. Was he really ready to tell the truth? To admit all his mistakes? He should have gone back to Kayli years ago, but the fear of Liam kept him away. Did he really want Owen to know how much of a coward he was?

"Then... what _did_ happen?" Owen whispered, eyes wide.

Roy shifted slightly and wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand before continuing, "I was attacked."

"By who?"

"...By-"

A shiver down his spine was the first indication he got telling him something was wrong. His eyes shot open, darting around the room and stopping on the door which was ajar, only just wide enough to show the gleaming, threatening eyes of Liam. Roy's breath caught in his throat and he choked, hands curling into fists as he watched the eyes vanish before his own. His back was rigid against the wall behind him.

He had received the warning loud and clear. Liam didn't want him telling Owen.

"_Roy?_"

Finally, Owen's terrified voice cut through the fog that had settled over Roy's mind and Roy turned to him, seeing the fear in the boys blue eyes.

"Don't you have lessons today?" Roy asked quietly.

"No, I'm injured," Owen replied easily, lifting his arm in explanation. "Now tell me who attacked you."

Roy shook his head.

"Fine," Owen said, frowning again. "Then I'm calling someone to get Dr Auld."

He had pulled his PHS from his pocket before Roy could react and flipped it open, beginning to dial a number. Roy had no idea who Owen was going to call but knew he couldn't let it happen. He didn't want Dr Auld seeing him like this and pitying him even more than he already did. What he needed was to get Owen to leave him alone so that he could go to Dr Auld by himself and accept the mission to Wutai.

It was the only way to make Liam go back to Junon.

So Roy stretched out his hand and snatched the PHS from Owen, keeping it out of reach as the boy tried to get it back.

"What is your problem?" Owen asked angrily. "Don't you _want_ help?"

"I want to be left on my own for a bit," Roy said firmly. "Don't call anyone."

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to be on your own," Owen murmured honestly, looking down at his lap and fidgeting nervously. He wanted to tell the truth but he was slightly worried what Roy would do in response. "It's just that... right now you're acting weird. And your head's full of stuff that's bound to bring on an urge soon. I want to make sure you don't hurt yourself or anyone else."

"Even if that means _you_ get hurt?"

"Whatever it takes," Owen confirmed.

"You're an idiot," Roy sighed. "You have no idea what I'm capable of."

"You're capable of defeating the PSD, I know that," Owen said, lifting his eyes again to stare at Roy stubbornly. "You can do it."

"I'm capable of murder," Roy hissed.

"Why do you say that?" Owen gasped. "You can't know that unless it's already happened!"

Roy shook his head and then leaned it back against the wall behind him, stretching his legs slightly. "What do you think we're doing at ShinRa?"

Owen was silent for a moment as he tried to work out what Roy was meaning, before he answered honestly with, "Trying to become SOLDIERs so that we can protect people from being hurt. Right? We're here to become heroes."

"Maybe you are," Roy whispered. "But I'm here to murder."

"What are you talking about? Are you doing this just to freak me out? It's not funny, Roy, stop talking like this!" Owen pleaded, grabbing Roy's arm and blinking his innocent blue eyes to try and stop them from becoming watery. It wasn't working.

"Dr Auld thinks that if I take my anger out on the enemy my PSD will lessen," Roy spoke. "I agree. But it means I'll have to murder. And once I start... what if I can't stop? What if I get so caught up in the thrill that I have to keep killing? What if one day you get in my way and I-"

Roy's head flung to the side and a rush of air escaped his lips in shock. Staring at the floor silently, it took him a few minutes to realise what had just happened. Owen had punched him. Owen. Punched him.

"That won't happen," came Owen's trembling voice.

Roy laughed. It started quietly and became a louder, terrifying sound as it continued.

Scrambling onto his feet, Owen darted for the door and glanced back only briefly at where Roy was still sitting down before leaving the room in his haste. He had to find Dr Auld and get help!

He left so quickly that he didn't hear when the laughs turned into dry, rasping sobs.

* * *

"Stop squirming," Sephiroth ordered, fumbling slightly with the syringe in his hands. It was one thing to be on the receiving end of a needle day in and day out, but to be the one injecting it into someone else? Sephiroth didn't think he'd ever felt this nervous before in his life.

Davis was terrified. The General hadn't told him what was going on and refused to answer any questions that he asked, demanding silence. Now Sephiroth was holding a syringe and preparing to stick it in Davis' arm for reasons which were obviously unknown to him. Davis wondered briefly if Kayli had been trying to warn him when she called before. What did she know that he didn't?

The needle pierced his skin and he turned his face away. He'd always been a bit queasy when it came to syringes.

Sephiroth concentrated as he took a sample of Davis' blood. Once the syringe was full he removed the needle from Davis' arm and gave the Third Class a small, round band-aid to fix over the tiny injury.

"Please, Sir," Davis said as he put the band-aid in place. "What's this all about? Why wasn't I called in to Professor Hojo or the Infirmary if someone needed to take a sample of my blood? Why did _you_ have to do it?"

"That's classified information," Sephiroth said quickly, carefully placing the syringe down on a tray. "Now I'd like you to remain seated and silent until Commanders Hewley and Rhapsodos arrive."

Davis didn't have the faintest idea why he was still needed but did as he was told, allowing his mind to think up wild ideas of what was going on as he waited. All he came up with was so far-fetched he found it hard to believe, and after a while he gave up trying to think of reasons.

After ten minutes had passed and faint voices were heard from the corridor outside, Sephiroth moved over to Davis and stared down at him with an intimidating stare. Then he spoke, "You're not to speak to anyone about what happens in here after I release you. Is that clear?"

"I-"

"If you do not agree to these terms, the payment made to your family in order to keep you here will be withdrawn and you will be removed from ShinRa permanently. You will never see your friends again or have a second chance." It didn't matter that Sephiroth was lying – Davis was far too valuable to ShinRa to ever be removed – because the fear in Davis' eyes showed that he was now willing to do whatever he was asked.

But as Davis nodded his consent and watched Sephiroth walk over to the door, opening it up for Angeal and Genesis, all he could think about was the payment that had been made to his family. No one had ever told him about that. When Zack and Reno got him out, the only thing he was told was that his dad had changed his mind after all.

Now he knew why.

"What's all this about, Sephiroth?" Angeal asked as he strode into the room and glanced down at Davis with a frown.

"Please," Sephiroth said, shutting the door behind Genesis as he also entered. "Just do as I say and don't ask any questions."

Genesis snorted as he leaned against the wall and Sephiroth shot a dark glare in his direction. But then the General's eyes lingered and he paused, lifting his head slightly as he gazed at his friend. Genesis shifted, frowning and wondering what had captured Sephiroth's attention.

"What?" Genesis finally snapped when Sephiroth still didn't move.

Sephiroth remained silent as he studied the single white strand in Genesis' hair. He was now certain of what had only been a guess before and knew he was doing the right thing. If he didn't get some of Davis' blood into each of his friends, who knew what would happen to them? They were already so much weaker than before and their wounds were not healing as well as they should be. Now Genesis' hair was turning white. What was next?

"Do exactly as I say," Sephiroth said, snapping out of his daze to quickly walk over to where the full syringe sat on the tray. Picking it up and fixing a fresh needle onto it, he moved over to Angeal first. "Your arm, please."

"What?" Angeal asked, confused. "What is that? Is that his blood?" He gestured at Davis.

"Please just trust me," Sephiroth said, reaching out with one hand to grab Angeal's arm and pull it towards him firmly. He was nervous again but tried to hide it, knowing that he had to do this if he wanted to save his friends. Thankfully, Angeal didn't fight, but the look on his face showed how uncertain he was about what was happening.

Sephiroth had to do this. He had to prove to them that he cared even though he no longer spent as much time training with them as he used to. It wasn't his fault. He was always so distracted lately. But the knowledge that his two best friends could be dying was enough to make him do everything in his power to stop it.

Inserting the needle into one of Angeal's veins, Sephiroth carefully injected half of the blood sample before stopping and pulling the needle out again. Removing the dirty needle from the syringe and once again securing a fresh one, he then looked over at Genesis.

"You're going to have to explain before you put that thing in me," Genesis said stubbornly, clenching his teeth after he'd spoken. He remained leaning against the wall, not wanting to get any closer in case Sephiroth tried to force it into him.

"Please, I'm trying to help you," Sephiroth said.

"How is this helping? And why do we need it?" Genesis retorted.

"You both know you haven't been feeling well lately," Sephiroth snapped. "First you tire easily, then your wounds won't heal. I'm trying to stop this from happening!"

"And his blood is supposed to achieve this?" Genesis nodded his head in the direction of Davis while keeping his eyes on Sephiroth.

"There's too much to explain right now," Sephiroth sighed, taking a step towards Genesis but stopping as the red-head held up a hand. "His blood is different. It will improve your immune systems and help you to adapt better. Trust me."

Genesis glanced back at Angeal, seeming to assess the situation before finally coming to some sort of decision in his mind. He stepped away from the wall and held his arm out.

"Even if it doesn't work," he mumbled in explanation as Sephiroth tilted his head in question. "I'm not exactly going to die from a bit of extra blood, am I?"

Sephiroth grinned, thankful that Genesis was now on his side and shook his head. Gripping Genesis' arm with one hand, he then proceeded to insert the remainder of the blood into a vein before withdrawing the needle and dropping the syringe on the tray.

"Thank you, we should know in half an hour whether it worked," Sephiroth told them.

"Do you want us to wait here?" Angeal asked. Sephiroth could see that both of his friends were beginning to imagine how boring that would be and quickly shook his head to put them at ease.

"You can go and do as you please, but in half an hour I'd like to see you in my office to work out whether anything has changed," Sephiroth said, beginning to walk towards the door with Angeal and Genesis. "Although there is one more thing I'm going to have to ask of you..."

Sephiroth opened the door and let them walk out first before following behind them. He glanced back at Davis, who was watching curiously and clearly straining his ears to ear what was about to be said, then shut the door firmly. As long as he spoke quietly, there would be no way Davis would hear his words.

"You're not to speak of this to anyone," Sephiroth instructed in a near-whisper.

"Why not? Hojo will definitely want to know if there's something wrong with us," Angeal replied, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"There's no need to tell Hojo anything unless this doesn't work. In that case, we will have to go to him for help. But he _cannot_ know about Davis. If he was to find out he would realise that certain people have been going behind his back and keeping information from him. I'm sure you can guess that means me, but also his apprentice, Frederiksen."

"Why is this so important? I mean, I can understand that you don't want to be caught out, but why do you care if his apprentice is punished?" Angeal asked, then grinned cheekily. "That's not like you."

"Hojo is a cruel, ruthless scientist. Frederiksen has a heart. If anything, we need to keep the boy working for Hojo for future specimens' sakes. No one should have to endure what-" Sephiroth abruptly stopped talking and shook his head. "That's not the point. Keep this to yourselves unless it doesn't work. In half an hour, if nothing has happened we'll try administering more blood before admitting defeat. If there is still no change we go to Hojo and never mention our own attempts of a cure. Agreed?"

Genesis and Angeal exchanged a glance, shrugged, then nodded. Satisfied, Sephiroth allowed them to walk away without another word.

Once they were out of sight, Sephiroth turned back to the door which concealed Davis and laid his hand on the handle, beginning to turn it in preparation to go back inside and make up some excuse as to why the boy couldn't leave just yet. He could always just tell the truth, but the more people who knew the more risk there was of it leaking out.

Before he had the chance to go inside, however, a hand pulled him back and spun him around to face the corridor he was standing in.

"I want to know what's going on," Kayli said firmly, her shoulders squared and her eyes boring into Sephiroth's harshly. "And I want to know now. So start talking."


	17. Chapter 16

A/N: Hello :)

Do you all still love me? Because I still love you guys. You're awesome. All of you. And I really hope you enjoy this chapter. Sorry about the wait. *hugs*

* * *

_You're wasting time._

Sephiroth stared down at Kayli with a blank expression on his face, considering her words. It was obvious she wasn't planning to leave this time until she knew what was going on, but how much could he risk telling her?

"I needed Taison for something," Sephiroth finally said. "Go back to whatever you were doing and it shouldn't be long before he comes to find you."

Even though he could tell Kayli was in a stubborn mood, he was still going to at least try and make her leave without receiving more information. If there was even the slightest chance she'd go along with it, he needed to seize the opportunity.

"What do you need him for?" Kayli asked angrily. "And why did you have to steal the vial from Edvard? You do realise Cloud Strife is _dying_ right now, don't you?"

_Such trivial matters. Make her leave._

"One grunt's life isn't the most important thing at stake right now," Sephiroth scowled.

"Would you care to explain, then?" Kayli asked sardonically.

"It's none of your business," Sephiroth snapped.

"Okay, I get that we haven't spoken in a long time and I understand that we only ever really spoke about _my_ secrets, but you do realise a friendship is two-way, right?" Shaking her head, Kayli added, "I don't know how Angeal and Genesis put up with you."

"You seem to be under the impression that we're friends of some sort," Sephiroth frowned, confused as to how she had reached this conclusion. He thought it had been obvious he was only ever interested in her at first because of her secret and now there was nothing to keep him speaking to her. He certainly didn't think of her as a 'friend'. An interesting individual who didn't seem phased by his status, but not a friend.

"I'd hoped," Kayli said. "Anyway, I'm not here to discuss that. I want to know what you're doing to Davis."

_Nuisance._

"I thought the two of you broke up," Sephiroth murmured as he raised one eyebrow. "Why the sudden interest in his well-being again?"

"Have you completely forgotten what I said a moment ago? Cloud is _dying_!" Kayli exclaimed.

_Son, make her leave._

"And Taison will be free to help you once I'm finished with him," Sephiroth said, sighing and rubbing the side of his head with one hand.

"When will that be?" Kayli asked, folding her arms.

"I'm not sure, but if you wait patiently in the infirmary I will send him straight to you when I can."

Kayli shook her head and said, "Not good enough."

_Enough! Get rid of the girl!_

"Leave me alone," Sephiroth growled. "I don't have time for this."

_You don't have a choice._

"I just want to know what's going on!" Kayli lowered her voice and continued. "I know Davis has some sort of special DNA, alright? What are you using it for?"

_Remember what I told you._

"I refuse to discuss this with you," Sephiroth said, his hands clenched into fists as he became increasingly annoyed. It wasn't just Kayli that was getting on his nerves. It was her. The voice. She was always there.

"I'm not leaving until you do," Kayli shrugged stubbornly.

"Just because you're a SOLDIER now does _not_ give you the right to speak to me this way. I am ordering you to leave me alone and go back to the infirmary. Wait for Taison to join you there and do not pursue this subject again unless you want me to go to Lazard about your insubordination."

Kayli's eyes narrowed and she clenched her own hands into fists. The one thing she had hoped Sephiroth wouldn't use against her in this situation was his rank, but unfortunately he knew all too well how to use that to his benefit.

"If Cloud dies I will _never_ forgive you," she hissed sharply. Turning on her heel, she stormed back through the halls of ShinRa quickly without looking back over her shoulder.

Sephiroth clenched his teeth and turned back to the door again. He needed time away from ShinRa for a while. Time away from all the stresses that came with his work. He had taken a short holiday a few weeks ago without anyone other than Lazard knowing, but he needed another. This was simply becoming too much to handle.

He would make sure Angeal and Genesis were okay, then he would leave.

* * *

Owen shifted from foot to foot as he watched Dr Auld enter the room he'd last seen Roy in. At the last moment, the counsellor turned back and fixed his gaze on the boy.

"It would probably be best if you let me deal with this myself," he said softly. "I might be able to get through to him easier if there is no one else listening in to the conversation. I hope you understand."

Owen drew his eyebrows together sadly but nodded, shifting a couple more times before sighing and turning away. The best thing for Roy was to have a talk with his counsellor, Owen knew, so he squared his shoulders and walked away calmly. He had to trust that the man would be able to do something for Roy.

Dr Auld turned back to the room and looked across at where Roy sat against the wall, his head back as he gazed upwards. Hazy eyes showed that Roy wasn't looking at anything in particular, so Dr Auld moved closer to him.

"Roy," he began quietly. "Owen told me you weren't feeling too good."

"Did he?"

"Yes," Dr Auld confirmed, watching closely as Roy showed no expression at all on his face. "He said that you were saying things which scared him. Do you want to talk to me about it?"

"No," Roy said immediately, shaking his head and then moving it to stare at his counsellor. "But there is something I need to talk to you about."

"And what's that?" Dr Auld asked curiously.

"Wutai."

Dr Auld waited, expecting Roy to explain further, but when no more words came he spoke up, "What about Wutai, Roy?"

"I accept the mission," Roy said. "I want to go to Wutai and fight."

"Are you sure this is really what you want?" Dr Auld asked, not wanting his patient to jump into any rash decision, even though he himself believed this was the right thing for the boy to do.

Roy looked down at the floor and thought everything over again. Go to Wutai, complete the mission and then return. Liam would be gone, thinking he had deserted ShinRa. Then Roy would be safe again and wouldn't need to worry about him. The mission may also help with his PSD, leaving him more clear-minded than normal.

"I'm positive," Roy nodded. "When do I leave?"

Dr Auld frowned slightly but responded, "I can arrange for you to be sent out today if that's what you want."

"Who else would be going?" Roy asked.

"Some other Infantrymen and SOLDIERs are already over in Wutai right now," Dr Auld explained. "You and another SOLDIER would be meeting up with them and then ambushing a powerful Wutai rebellion group. How does that sound to you?"

A rebellion group. That was what Liam wanted him to join.

"That sounds great," Roy agreed. "Should I get my things together now?"

"Soon," Dr Auld said, hesitating as he considered something very seriously in his mind. Then, finally, he chose to go ahead with whatever he had been thinking. "First I'd like to introduce you to one of the other SOLDIERs you will be leaving with. Would you come back to my office with me, please? That way I'll be able to call him in easily."

Shrugging, Roy pulled himself up onto his feet and slowly followed Dr Auld out of the room. His eyes constantly darted around, searching the dark corners and all far distances for a pair of cold, green eyes.

He wasn't aware that Dr Auld was watching him curiously, trying to understand what he was doing.

The two of them reached the counselling office without a problem and Dr Auld gestured for Roy to sit as he moved over to his desk and picked up the phone that sat there, dialling a number.

"It's Dr Auld speaking," he said into the phone after a moment. "Would you be able to report to my office as soon as possibly please? It's important."

After another moment, the counsellor hung up and sat down.

"He'll be here soon," he told Roy. The boy nodded slowly, still tense from everything that had happened. He just hoped Liam wouldn't hang around waiting to see whether his instructions were actually followed out.

They sat in silence until there was a quiet beep and the secretaries voice sounded, telling Dr Auld that his visitor had arrived. Dr Auld told her to let him in and then the door opened, revealing a man with white hair that had been pulled back into a ponytail. He stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.

Roy stared in surprise. It was the SOLDIER that had found him that night when he had injured Owen.

"You wanted to see me?" the man asked Dr Auld.

"Yes," Dr Auld stood up to speak to him. "I'd like you to organise for the mission to Wutai to be brought forward, if you could. Roy Toulson will be going with you."

The man turned to look over at Roy and seemed to size him up, a flicker in his eye showing that he remembered him as well. Roy shifted, still feeling guilty for letting himself be associated with Owen's family so closely for such a long time.

"Roy," Dr Auld now addressed him. "This is Second Class SOLDIER Nareau and he will be going with you on the mission. I'd like you to stick close to him when you go to Wutai and make sure you do everything you're told."

"Of course," Roy rolled his eyes. "I'm training to be a SOLDIER, I do realise I'm meant to do as I'm told."

"Good," Dr Auld said with a nod of his head. "Well then, will you two be okay to go get ready now?"

"Right away?" Nareau asked.

"Yes please," Dr Auld nodded. "Lazard should be fine with it. I was the one who asked him to delay the mission in the first place."

"Alright then," Nareau replied, then turned to Roy. "Follow me."

* * *

Favouring his right arm as he walked, Owen made his way through the ShinRa corridors towards the infirmary. He hoped Dr Auld would be able to say something to get through to Roy and stop him from thinking those things he had been before. What Roy had been saying had scared Owen. Did Roy really think he might become addicted to killing? Surely not.

With the infirmary door up ahead, Owen sighed. He was going back there to see if the bandage on his arm needed to be changed. The other reason, of course, was just that he was bored and didn't know what else to do with himself while he waited for Roy.

Entering the infirmary, he dodged the other few patients milling around and walked up to one of the nurses.

"Hi," he said, getting the woman's attention. "I'm here about my arm."

"Oh, yes," she nodded, reaching out for it and beginning to undo the binding. He watched in silence as she tossed the used bandage to the side and began to inspect his arm. It was practically healed already and the nurse nodded in approval at the sight. "I'll put a fresh bandage on and you can leave it until tomorrow morning," she told him.

"Okay," Owen said.

"Your arm should be properly healed by then and you'll be able to go back to classes again," the nurse added.

"Sounds great," he grinned.

"Oh?" the nurse laughed as she began wrapping his arm up once more. "So you're not one of those boys who will do anything to get out of class then?"

"Normally yes!" Owen gushed, going red. "But I have no friends to hang out with today and it's boring without anyone with you. I'd rather be at class."

"That makes sense," the nurse smiled warmly and patted his arm gently as she finished up. "There you go, all done."

"Thanks," Owen grinned.

Turning away and beginning to make his way back over to the door, his eyes wandered over to the side of the room where a blond infantryman lay in one of the beds, his face incredibly pale. Two people, one boy and one girl, stood beside his bed watching him, their faces solemn.

Overcome with curiosity, he changed the direction he was walking in and soon arrived at the foot of the bed.

"What's happened to him?" he asked quietly.

The two people glanced up and the boy looked at the girl before dropping his gaze again.

"He's been poisoned," the girl explained softly. "We're waiting for a cure."

"How long will it take?" Owen asked, eyes wide in horror. Poisoned? Was it fatal? How much time did the blond have left?

"Hopefully not too long," the girl frowned, sounding slightly bitter. "Don't worry yourself over it."

Owen fell silent for a moment and frowned down at the blond as well. He wondered what could have poisoned him and slowly realised there were a lot of bad things that could happen to someone working for ShinRa. It could have been a monster or a soldier of Wutai, as well as many other things.

A few moments later, as Owen couldn't wait in complete silence for very long, he spoke up again.

"My name's Owen Toulson," he introduced himself. "I'm an infantryman. I only just joined a week or so ago. My brother and I came from Corel."

"Edvard Frederiksen," the boy replied in a murmur. "I'm an apprentice scientist." Owen looked fascinated by that information, his eyes widening in excitement.

"Kayli Peters," Kayli said with a sigh, dragging her eyes away from Cloud to look up at the young infantryman. "Third Class SOLDIER as you can probably tell."

There was a short moment before Owen's mouth fell open in shock.

"Your name is _Kayli?_"

* * *

Once Nareau and Roy had grabbed their things andspoken to Lazard, they walked through the corridors of ShinRa with purpose. Lazard had given them clearance to leave on the mission right away so they were now on their way outside.

"The flight to Wutai isn't exactly short," Nareau said as they walked. "We'll be getting there when it's dark."

"That should make it harder for Wutai soldiers to see us coming though, right?" Roy asked.

"Yes," Nareau nodded. "We'll turn the lights of the helicopter off once we're close enough so there's no chance of _us_ being ambushed instead of the other way around. Don't worry though, the pilots ShinRa have working for them are the best in the business. We won't have to worry about crashing into the trees."

Roy felt comforted by Nareau's words but stayed silent. Nareau didn't speak again either for a while as they kept walking and Roy glanced around at their surroundings. They were outside the infirmary.

Looking sideways as they walked past the door, Roy looked in to see Owen talking to two strangers. One of them was a female with shoulder-length black hair.

Stopping in the doorway of the infirmary, Roy felt his breath leave his chest. Could that be Kayli? This girl had the same colour hair and looked around the same size he imagined Kayli to be at this age. It was difficult to tell, though, as it had been so long since he'd seen Kayli and had no real idea of what she looked like any more.

Then the girl shifted and tucked some of her hair behind her ear, revealing her vivid blue eyes for a moment.

Roy's heart sank and he felt his shoulders visibly droop in disappointment. Kayli's eyes were green like his, not blue. This wasn't her. This was just someone else that looked like her.

"Are you alright?" Nareau asked, placing a gentle hand on Roy's shoulder cautiously.

"Yeah," Roy sighed with a nod. "Sorry. I thought I saw someone I knew."

Nareau nodded in understanding and then the two of them continued walking again, until they exited the ShinRa building and neared the closest helicopter which was being prepared for take-off.

Loading their things up into the helicopter, they then climbed in themselves and took their seats, strapping down as the pilot lifted the helicopter off the ground and steered them in the direction of Wutai.

The journey had begun.

* * *

_It starts with pain_  
_Followed by hate_  
_Fuelled by the endless question_  
_No one can answer_

_Is there a cure for your sickness_  
_Have you no heart?_

_How did you get here and when did it start?_  
_An innocent child with a thorn in his heart_

_World So Cold – 12 Stones_


	18. Chapter 17

**Second A/N: Sorry about the double upload guys, I had to fix a plothole DX.**

* * *

A/N: Complete accident. I swear. I didn't mean to draw it out this long. Um. At least it's here now. Review? :)

* * *

Kayli frowned at the boy in front of her, wondering why he had reacted so forcefully to hearing her name. Glancing across at Edvard, it didn't look like he had any idea either.

"Have you got a problem with my name or something?" Kayli asked, raising an eyebrow. Owen shook his head quickly, but his mouth was still open in surprise. Then, suddenly, fhe started laughing.

"Sorry," he managed to get out. "There's nothing wrong with your name, it's just that my brother had a twin named Kayli who he's still trying to track down. I find it hilariously coincidental that you share that name _and_ even resemble him in looks. Oh gaia, I'm not saying you look like a guy or anything, I just mean that-"

"Kayli! What's going on?" Davis exclaimed, bursting into the infirmary and panting slightly.

Kayli stared at Owen silently, a hint of horror showing through her expression as she ignored Davis for the time being. He had a brother who was searching for a twin named Kayli? How likely was the chance of such a coincidence?

"Kayli, seriously," Davis spoke up again, a frown creasing his forehead. "It sounded really important on the phone."

Shaking her head and turning to face him, Kayli let out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding. "It is," she confirmed. "Edvard, tell him what to do."

Edvard stepped over to Davis and explained the situation briefly, not going into too much detail but saying enough so that Davis was able to understand just how serious it was. Also explaining what they needed Davis for, Edvard began preparing the necessary equipment so that he would be able to transfuse some of his blood into Cloud.

Kayli moved closer to Cloud's bed and did her best to focus on the task at hand, not allowing her mind to dwell on what Owen had just said moments ago. Cloud was more important right now and she was anxious to see if the blood transfusion would work. She was sure it would since Edvard had so much faith in it, but there was still a seed of worry slowly growing within her.

Looking down at the blond, Kayli took in his pale skin and shallow breathing. He had looked the same for a while now, but since Davis arrived hopefully Cloud would begin to get some colour back in his cheeks and breathe easier. Kayli hoped so. She didn't like seeing any of her friends sick or in pain.

Backing away slightly in case Edvard needed more room to move than he already had, Kayli watched as blood was drawn out of Davis and then injected into Cloud. It looked so easy from the way Edvard did it, proving that he clearly had a lot of skill in the area. Kayli was certain he would make a wonderful scientist one day.

Now that Edvard was finished with the task, he stepped back and looked down at Cloud thoughtfully.

"I'm not sure how long it will be before we see signs of improvement," he told them. "Hopefully not too long, but at least we've gotten the blood into him now. Thank you Davis."

Davis shrugged, not sure what to say, and glanced over at Kayli.

"You okay?"

"Hm?" Startled, she looked up at Davis. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Davis nodded and they fell silent. Looking past Kayli, Davis caught sight of Owen and he frowned in confusion. Glancing hurriedly between the boy and Kayli, he was about to say something when Edvard spoke first.

"What did Sephiroth want you for?"

"I-" Davis frowned. "I can't say. Sorry."

"But he wasn't just trying to keep you from us? He let you go?" Edvard continued.

"Yeah, once he got what he wanted he said I could leave again," Davis explained. "He _might_ need me again... but it doesn't matter."

"He's been acting differently lately," Edvard murmured. "I wonder what's going on."

"Yeah, um," Davis bit his lip and looked at Kayli again, making her raise an eyebrow in response to his stare. "You met Owen, then?"

"You know him?" Kayli asked.

"Yeah..." He narrowed his eyes slightly and then said, "I've met him _and_ his brother."

There. Davis noticed a flicker of emotion in Kayli's eyes and took a deep breath, but waited for her to say something else. Did she know, now? That Roy was in ShinRa? It was about time she found out, since he and Gemma had known for what felt like ages now.

"Is there something you'd like to tell me, Davis?" Kayli asked slowly, folding her arms.

Hesitating, Davis wondered how she would react if he blurted it out then and there. She _had_ to know already if she'd met Owen and reacted to Davis mentioning his brother. But if she did, why wasn't she saying anything about it?

"His brother's name is Roy," Davis finally said.

Kayli didn't speak, but her jaw clenched ever-so-slightly.

"He's your Roy, Kayli. I've seen him."

Whatever reaction Davis had pictured in his mind was _nothing_ like the one he received. A flash of anger flew across Kayli's face and she dropped her arms to her sides, hands forming into fists.

"Don't be stupid, Davis," she hissed. "He's_ dead_."

"No he's not!" Davis shot back instantly. "I've seen him, Kayli! He's got the scars and everything!"

"That's not possible," Kayli shook her head stubbornly.

Throwing his hands up in exasperation, Davis tried to think of what he could say. Then, not knowing how to fit it into a quick sentence, just began blurting out everything he could think to try and make her understand that he was telling the truth.

"He signed up to ShinRa as Roy Peters. Doesn't that tell you something? How many Roy Peters are there in the world, do you think? How many of them have scars disfiguring their faces? How many of them have black hair and green eyes exactly like yours? How many-" Davis stopped unexpectedly as he watched Kayli crumpled before him, her whole body curling inwards on itself and her head falling forward to hide her eyes. Her shoulders shook with silent sobs and Davis slowly stepped forward, pulling her into a hug to try and comfort her. There was nothing else to say now.

"It's you..." Owen breathed from beside them. "You're Roy's twin sister."

* * *

Sephiroth looked up as the door to his office flung inwards, slamming against the wall from the force it had been opened with. Genesis and Angeal stood there, both looking pleased in their own ways. Genesis had a smirk on his face while Angeal was simply smiling, his eyes sparkling happily.

"It worked?" Sephiroth asked immediately, standing up.

"I feel better than I have in _weeks_," Genesis nodded. "Feel like going for a sparring match?"

"We shouldn't exert ourselves too much just yet," Angeal said, glancing sideways at Genesis before looking back at Sephiroth. "But yes, it worked."

Sephiroth placed his hands on his desk and leaned on it gently, a smug expression coming over his face as he watched his friends. He could tell they looked better than they had been before, and the single white strand that he had noticed in Genesis' hair earlier was now gone. Clearly the DNA had done its job well and Sephiroth wouldn't be needing Davis any more.

Sinking back down into his chair with a sigh, Sephiroth decided that as soon as Genesis and Angeal left he would speak to Lazard and request a holiday. He needed to get away.

"Well," Genesis said. "We only came to let you know it had worked. Whether either of you come or not, I'm now going to go do some more training."

Turning, he left the room without waiting for a response, eager to prove to himself that he was as strong as he used to be, if not stronger.

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow as Angeal stayed in the doorway.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Are you okay?" Angeal asked quietly, his voice carrying a very serious tone. "You've been acting strangely."

"What do you mean?" Sephiroth asked, looking down at his desk and pretending to sort through some of the papers that were there. No matter what Angeal said to him, he was _not_ going to admit to hearing a voice in his head.

"You'd tell me if something was wrong, wouldn't you?" Angeal questioned.

Sephiroth hesitated, papers held in his hands, and narrowed his eyes slightly. No, he wouldn't. Not always. Not if he thought it was better left unsaid. But then he lifted his eyes to his friend and nodded slowly.

"Of course."

Angeal breathed out slowly, relaxing slightly as he heard what he wanted to hear.

"Good, I'm glad," he said. "Because I'm always here to talk to if you need it."

"I know you are," Sephiroth agreed with a nod. "But I really do have some other things I need to get done right now, I hope you don't mind?" He had raised a hand slightly, gesturing for Angeal to leave the room.

Thankfully Angeal didn't protest and simply left Sephiroth to the work laid out on his desk. However, the General did not immediately turn to the papers and continue working. Now that he knew his two best friends were okay again, he had something else in mind.

Pulling his PHS from his pocket, he quickly dialled a familiar number and then waited for Lazard to answer. He drummed his fingers on the desk impatiently, his body tensing up in anticipation of two very different things.

_I need you to stay here_, the voice spoke in a whisper, trailing through his mind stubbornly. He had known she would speak to him now. She always knew what he was planning. _You must stay._

"Yes?"

Sephiroth blinked to shift his attention from the voice in his head to the voice in his ear, quickly sorting out his thoughts again so that he could say exactly what he wanted.

"I'm calling to request another short holiday," he said.

"Another?" Lazard was surprised.

"Yes, I need some time off," Sephiroth confirmed. "I'd like to take three weeks."

"That's a fair amount, I'll have to rely on Angeal and Genesis if things turn sour in Wutai again," Lazard thought aloud. "It's workable, though. Is there a specific reason you need more time off so soon?"

Sephiroth hesitated.

"Stress."

There was silence between the two of them for a moment before Lazard murmured something in acceptance of the answer, and then the typing of keys on a keyboard came through the phone faintly. Sephiroth's enhanced hearing picked it up easily.

"Alright," Lazard said. "You've got three weeks to go and do whatever it is you have to do in order to de-stress. Will you be needing any transportation anywhere?"

_Nibelheim, if you must._

"Are there any SOLDIERs preparing to go to Nibelheim soon?" Sephiroth asked, unsure of why he was asking.

"No," Lazard said. "There's no need. It's a tiny country town that hardly has monster encounters very close. Why, is that where you want to go?"

"No, never mind," Sephiroth shook his head despite the fact that Lazard could not see him do so.

"Then what is it you'll be needing?" Lazard questioned.

"Just a truck." Sephiroth smirked slightly as the typing abruptly stopped. "I'm going to be doing a lot of driving and I'd like to be by myself. We do have some blank trucks, don't we? Without the ShinRa logo on the side?"

"I- yes, we do. Where are you going?" Lazard had to ask.

"Out of Midgar."

After another pause, Lazard realised that was all he was going to get out of the 1st Class SOLDIER. Sighing slightly, he spoke his consent.

"I'll organise for it be out the front of the ShinRa building, ready for you when you want to leave," Lazard said. "Is there anything you have to do before you go or should I have the truck sent there right away?"

"There is one more thing I'll be doing first, actually. It shouldn't take too long though. I just need to speak to Professor Hojo about something."

"Then I'll organise for the truck to be sent out as soon as I finish what I'm doing right now," Lazard replied. "It should be in place once you leave the building."

"Thank you," Sephiroth said, disconnecting the call and putting the PHS back in his pocket before standing up and preparing to leave. No doubt his friends would wonder where and why he had gone, but he couldn't explain. He just needed time away so he was able to figure out things for himself.

First of all, he would go to Hojo and get another dose of mako. Then he would be out of the building and on his way out of Midgar as fast as he could.

_Don't do this, my son... you must stay._

* * *

Crouching low in the grass, Viktor slowly scanned the trees in front of him for any slight movements, also keeping his ears open for the crunching of leaves or heavy breathing. His hands gripped the two daggers he had chosen as his weapons and he shifted his body back slightly so that he had a wider view of the trees in the distance.

A faint rustle of leaves sounded from his left and he tilted his head slightly, but kept his eyes forward. He was waiting. Waiting for what he knew was there.

A moment later a small figure darted from behind a tree and started running forwards, their arm pulling back in preparation to let a weapon fly towards Viktor. Instantly, he rolled forward and sideways, throwing his own dagger once he rocked up onto his feet again. It thudded firmly into a tree just above the figures head as they ran past, and then the Shuriken they had been holding dug itself into the dirt beside him.

Grinning, he pulled it out of the earth and stood, walking ahead to meet the figure that had doubled back for his dagger and then continued on.

"Here you go," the girl said when they had reached each other, handing his dagger back to him as he gave her Shuriken back as well.

"You did well, Yuffie," Viktor commented with a grin, slipping both his daggers into his belt. He and the Wutaian Princess had been training for weeks now, out in the forest behind Fort Tamblin. No one else knew she was here and they had to keep it that way. It wouldn't be good for Wutai if it became known that the Princess was involved in a rebellion group.

Not only that, but she would get in a_ lot_ of trouble with her father if he found out.

"You did okay, too," Yuffie teased with a laugh, swinging her Shuriken around lazily.

"I should probably head back now," Viktor sighed. "Not that they'll be wondering where I am, but I'd like to find out if they've made any plans yet on when they're going to attack the ShinRa camp."

"Yeah," Yuffie nodded her understanding. "I think I'll leave then, before things get_ too_ dangerous. There's still a chance my father will find out what I've been up to, but he'll go even crazier if he thinks I was here during an actual fight. See you later, okay?"

"Yeah, before too long I hope!"

As Yuffie darted off through the trees again, Viktor turned to head back to Fort Tamblin. A shadow fell over him instantly and he gasped in shock, jumping back and grabbing for his daggers before realising it was only Sergei.

"You scared the living daylights out of me!" he whined.

"Good." Sergei gripped his shoulder and began walking him back. "It's not safe for you to be out here by yourself right now."

"When are we going to attack the ShinRa camp?" Viktor changed the subject.

"Very soon," Sergie lowered his voice. "A helicopter was seen coming down near their campsite half an hour ago. It won't be long before they come to us with full force, so we're going to be ready for them."

"And I can fight?" Viktor asked eagerly.

"No."

"Oh, come on! You know I'm good! I've been training so long and hard-"

"Viktor, please," Sergei sighed, looking down at the boy with tired eyes. Viktor found it incredible how much older Sergei had started to look as they prepared themselves to strike ShinRa harder. It was like his life was draining out of him slowly. Soon enough he wouldn't be able to fight, either. "Your father wouldn't want you fighting yet. It's too dangerous."

Not responding, Viktor dropped his gaze to the ground as they entered through the front of Fort Tamblin, Sergei nodding to the men on guard as they passed.

"Please stay in your room until the battle is over," Sergei said as he led Viktor to his quarters. "It's possible that some of the ShinRa soldiers may get past our defence and find their way down here, so keep the door locked. We're going to try and keep the fighting outside the Fort walls, but there's still a chance. Do you promise?"

"I promise," Viktor said reluctantly, walking through the door to his room and then turning back to look up at Sergei again. "How will I know when I can open the door again?"

Sergei paused for a moment, looking down at the twelve-year-old boy and considering the question. "I'll come and get out out," he said finally. "I'll say your father's name so you know it is me and not anyone else. Who knows whether ShinRa have found themselves a mimic artist or not."

Viktor nodded and then Sergei shut the door, listening for the click that told of the boy locking himself in before walking away.

"Is it time?" Fallon, appearing from the side and falling into step beside his superior, asked solemnly.

"Yes," Sergei nodded. "Has Kendo confirmed whether they have started their approach yet?"

"He did a few moments ago," Fallon replied. "It's true that the helicopter brought more men. Their group is slightly larger than before."

"Any 1st Classes?" Sergei asked, signalling to others as they grew closer to the entryway of the Fort. He and Fallon walked out first, everyone else following behind.

"None that I've seen," Fallon shook his head. "But a few 2nd Classes are there."

"Alright," Sergei said, laying his hands on his weapons and lowering his voice now that they were fanning out amongst the trees. Not saying anything else, he instead used hand signals to tell his men what to do, making sure they were all in position and prepared for what was about to happen.

It started the next second, a ShinRa soldier firing upon them and then being engaged in a close-range fight with one of Sergei's men who had run forward. It wasn't long before the forest exploded with battle sounds of clanging swords, gunshots and war cries.

Sergei hung back slightly, using his gun to fire at some of the more inexperienced ShinRa fighters. He was proud of the way his men jumped right into the midst of things and gave their all, giving in to the smile that was trying to make its way onto his face.

But suddenly he saw something which made him stop in his tracks and the smile fell from his face as quickly as it had come.

Was it even possible? Hadn't he died?

Shooting a ShinRa soldier point-blank that had tried to creep up on him and take advantage of his frozen state, Sergei shook himself and began running towards the man he had spotted. It looked so much like Lee that he couldn't find the will to deny it any more, but that didn't stop the questions from bombarding his mind.

Why was Lee wearing the ShinRa uniform? Had he been brainwashed?

And why was his face covered in scars? Had ShinRa been torturing him all these years that they had him captive?

Now upon him, Sergei grabbed him before he could protest, dragging him to the side away from the fighting so that he would have the chance to speak to him.

Lee struggled, yelling and trying to throw the other man off him, but he wasn't strong enough.

"What did they _do_ to you?" Sergei exclaimed, throwing Lee down onto the ground when he deemed them far enough away. Lee panted heavily and pushed himself away from the older man slightly.

"Who?" he asked.

"ShinRa, of course," Sergei began, but stopped as the man lifted his head and looked up at him. He was too young. This wasn't Lee. It couldn't be. "You-You're not Lee," he murmured.

The man – who was still just a boy, Sergei realised now – shook his head in confusion.

"Who's Lee?"


	19. Chapter 18

A/N: There's nothing better than having a new chapter of story right before NaNoWriMo :) Yes, that's right. I'm a horrible, evil person who hardly ever updates, and now I'm going to be writing an original story for a month and not even THINKING about ABD. Oh dear. Do you hate me? I don't hate you. I love you guys.

Anyway. I do hope you enjoy this chapter. Please review :) And check out my twitter because it's awesome. twitter dot com slash OhSlytherinEyes

* * *

The door to the room swung open with a bang and Jinx stood there, his eyes wide in excitement and a piece of paper held tightly in his hand. Alec and Dios looked up from where they had been moving their things out of the way in preparation for the party taking place in only an hour, curious as to why their room-mate looked so much happier than normal.

"If I'm dreaming, don't tell me and don't wake me up," Jinx said firmly, striding into the room and shoving the paper in their faces.

Alec took a hold of it and looked down, his eyes skimming over the words there before his eyebrows raised in surprise. Dios gasped in shock and blinked rapidly, not believing his eyes were telling him the truth.

"Jinx..." Alec looked up at his friend and trailed off.

"That's right! I'm a Turk!" Jinx exclaimed with a grin.

Looking back down at the paper, Alec stared at the approval signature which was at the bottom. So Reno had finally given in and allowed Jinx to become what he'd always dreamed of being? Somehow, it didn't seem so likely.

"That's great," Dios said to Jinx, patting his shoulder encouragingly. "Now Alec and I can finally get rid of you! You are going to be moving to the Turk floor, aren't you?" There was a teasing smile on his face and Jinx rolled his eyes at his room-mate.

"Of course I will, but that won't be for a few days until everything's sorted out. Now, what do you need help with for this party tonight?"

The three of them then continued to clear away their mess, making the room acceptable for holding a party in. Once almost the full hour had passed, Rex showed up.

"Is everything ready?" he asked, his arms hanging by his sides.

"Just about," Alec said as he kicked a sock under his bed.

"You used to the new arm, yet?" Jinx asked, moving over to Rex and looking down at his prosthetic. Rex moved it around a bit as he too looked down, and shrugged.

"It's weird," he admitted. "But I'll get it."

"Of course you will," Jinx grinned. "If you can get used to not having an arm at all, it'll probably be a piece of cake getting used to this!"

Rex looked up and frowned.

"Are you okay?"

"What do you mean?" Jinx asked, the grin still on his face. Rex raised his eyebrows and gestured at Jinx silently as if to say, 'that'. Shaking his head, Jinx said, "You'll find out, don't worry."

"Trust me," Alec laughed. "You'll find out."

Dios chuckled as well and the three room-mates all shared in the amusement for a moment as Rex continued to stare at Jinx with a slightly concerned expression on his face. He wasn't used to seeing Jinx so happy. It was making him feel nostalgic, remembering when they were all just grunts trying to get through the first gruelling year of being part of ShinRa.

Hopefully this party would bring back even more memories. Rex smiled to himself.

"Alright, where's the food?" Dios spoke up.

"Here. I had to make sure it wouldn't get lost amongst our stuff." Alec reached up to the top compartment of their closet and pulled down the bags of chips and other junk food. There were some bottles of drink as well and Dios came forward to pull them down.

Jinx grabbed a small table that had been leaning against one of the walls, placing it in the centre of the room so that Dios could then put the drinks on it. Alec dropped the bags of food around the table and then straightened.

"So everything's ready, then?" Rex asked, his eyes sweeping the room.

"Yeah, now we just need-"

"Hey, so where's the food?"

Rex turned around and grinned as he saw Jensen, who was leaning around him to look at the table before making a beeline for it.

"-people," Jinx finished what he had been saying before, shrugging.

"Is no one else here yet?" Jensen asked as he shoved some chips into his mouth.

"It won't be long," Dios said. "We've just seen what effect the promise of food can have on someone."

Jensen rolled his eyes in amusement at Dios, continuing to munch as he moved over to sit on one of the beds. Then, as predicted, the door opened again to let some more people in.

"Hey," Nareau greeted Rex. "Uh, Kayli said you didn't mind if I brought along a few extras?"

"Yeah, it's fine," Rex confirmed. "Who'd you bring?"

Stepping aside, Nareau revealed the four younger boys who stood eagerly outside the room, their faces lit up in excitement. Before he could help himself, Rex burst out laughing.

"Davis is going to hate you!" he exclaimed, vividly remembering when three of these boys had made a fool of his best friend. "I don't mind at all, though, come on in."

Nareau smiled slightly as well and gestured for the boys to go in, hanging back so he could speak to Rex again briefly.

"I thought I might just explain to you exactly why I brought them along," he said softly. "See, Grain over there-" He gestured to one of the red-heads. "-is Camon's brother. So he's a bit like a brother to me as well. And when I asked him to come along he said he wouldn't come unless his friends could as well."

"Really? Camon's brother?" Rex asked, now watching Grain closely. The boy was laughing around a mouthful of food. "I can see the resemblance, actually."

"Anyway, the other three are Meeth, Owen and Charlie."

Rex nodded, trying to remember which name belonged to which face. Then he turned back to Nareau and said, "Kayli's not here yet, by the way. But she should be soon. She's coming with Edvard, Davis and Cloud. They got held up."

"She's with Davis?" Nareau frowned thoughtfully. The last time he'd spoken to Davis, the other had been searching for Kayli to tell her something. To be honest, he was really curious as to what that was.

"They were in the infirmary," Rex explained. "I don't know everything but it had something to do with Cloud."

At the table in the middle of the room, Charlie and Grain were laughing really hard at something one of them had said while Meeth and Owen tried to ignore them and have their own conversation. The red-heads were getting a bit much for them and Meeth was really glad to finally have someone else he could talk to when his other friends got too rowdy.

While the younger boys had their own conversations, Alec, Jinx and Dios were also having their own. They were discussing the possibilities of a new room-mate being moved into the room once Jinx left and whether or not that would be better or worse than sharing with the 'former ill-tempered Sergeant'. Jinx couldn't hide his excitement no matter what Alec and Dios said to try and wind him up.

A few minutes later, after Gemma had shown up and attached herself to Rex's side, the last few guests arrived.

Davis walked through the door first, smiling at Rex before moving further into the room so that the others could enter comfortably as well. Kayli had her eyes down when she entered, but she did glance up at Rex briefly to give him a small smile as well, and then Edvard walked in with Cloud behind him.

Rex blinked and did a double take as he noticed the blond. There was something different about him... but what?

Cloud stood in the doorway uncertainly for a moment, his eyes flickering over everyone in the room critically. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and then slowly walked in, avoiding looking at anyone directly. He felt different now that he was recovered and Edvard had said he still wanted to keep a close eye on him in case Davis' DNA had any adverse effects. He had no objections to that – he felt as though all senses had been numbed.

Rex watched as Cloud trailed after Edvard silently, suddenly realising what he had noticed as being different. Cloud's face had changed. It looked older, somehow, as if he had lived through years more experience. It made him look much more mature than the boy Rex remembered.

"Sorry we're a bit late," Davis called back to Rex as he reached the middle table and bent down to grab himself some food.

"Don't worry about it," Rex shrugged, glancing to where Gemma still stood beside him. She had nudged his side gently and now leaned in close to his ear so she could whisper something.

"I'm going to check on Kayli," she told him, and he found himself looking over to where Kayli stood by herself. She definitely looked unsettled and was ignoring Nareau, so Rex nodded and let Gemma go to her friend. When there was a girl in the room looking like that, it was best to let another girl handle it.

Kayli looked up as her best friend sidled up beside her with a worried smile on her face. Gemma wasn't trying to hide how she felt at all, contrary to how Kayli had instantly tried to bring a normal smile to her face to disguise her pain.

"What's up?" Gemma asked quietly, taking Kayli's hand and squeezing encouragingly. The smile slipped off Kayli's face and she looked down at the floor again, taking a deep breath.

Frowning slightly, Gemma suddenly wondered if Kayli had finally found out about-

"Roy," Kayli said softly. "He's alive."

Gemma didn't say anything at first, but just stared at her best friend silently. Why was Kayli sad about this? Why wasn't she leaving the party to go track him down and see him again? Shaking her head slightly to push her questions aside, Gemma tightened her grip on Kayli's hand slightly.

"I know," she admitted gently. "Davis and I have been trying to tell you for a while now but you kept coming up with something else you had to do before we could say it."

"He's in Wutai," Kayli said, not reacting to Gemma's words at all. She looked like she was going over everything she knew in her mind, not listening to what anyone said properly. "He was adopted by Owen's parents. They're- they're brothers."

"Wait, he's in Wutai?" Gemma asked. That was news to her. "I didn't know that first-year Infantrymen were allowed to go! That's so dangerous!"

"Thanks for the reminder," Kayli muttered.

"No, sorry, I just meant-"

"It's okay. I know what you meant."

Gemma was silent as she watched Kayli closely, trying to figure out exactly what her friend was feeling. Knowing that Roy was in Wutai explained why Kayli hadn't gone running to look for him and it also explained why she looked sad. But there was something else in Kayli's eyes she couldn't quite put her finger on or explain.

"Kayli, you'll be able to see him when he gets back," Gemma said reassuringly. "Then the two of you can talk about what's happened since..."

"I don't know if I _want_ to talk to him."

Gemma froze and stared in shock at her best friend. Kayli wasn't sure she wanted to talk to Roy? Why? What had happened to make her look so hopeless and sad?

"Aren't you... aren't you glad he's alive?" Gemma asked, disbelief in her tone of voice. "You've just found out that your twin brother, who you thought was killed by your older brother, is _alive_! Why aren't you happy? Why don't you want to talk to him?"

Kayli didn't say in response at first. She was thinking over everything she had found out in the last few hours and trying to organise it enough so that she _could_ explain how she felt. It was so difficult.

"You know how I was seeing a counsellor occasionally ever since Sephiroth told Lazard about Roy?" When Gemma nodded, Kayli continued. "Roy's been seeing the same counsellor. But Justin never told me! Davis, Owen and I went to see him once we'd figured it out, and he said it was because he wasn't sure what effect it would have on Roy to know that I was in the same building."

"What do you mean? Surely it would be good for both of you to know that you're so close to each other?" Gemma asked, shocked. Clearly Kayli had found out a lot more than she and Davis had known beforehand and Gemma was very interested to learn of it all.

Kayli shook her head, a frown creasing her forehead as she tried to figure out what she should say next. After a significant pause where neither said anything, she spoke up, "He's just like Liam."

Stopping herself before she could burst out a million questions of what on earth Kayli meant by that, Gemma took a few deep breaths. "You're going to have to start from the beginning, you've lost me."

Looking up at Gemma and still ignoring the party that was going on around them, Kayli nodded in agreement.

"Cloud's ready to become a SOLDIER. Hojo's testing has enabled his body to become strong enough to resist the mako, but he kept it a secret from Cloud. Edvard forced Hojo to give him more mako, though, to prove to Cloud he didn't have to stay with Hojo."

Gemma wasn't quite sure how this was the beginning of everything with Roy, but she nodded anyway and let Kayli keep going. Hopefully it would soon become clear how this tied in.

"Hojo put a poison with the mako he gave Cloud because he wanted it to appear that Cloud wasn't ready. He wants to be able to keep Cloud for testing purposes."

"That's sick!" Gemma exclaimed.

Kayli nodded again. "So Cloud collapsed from the poison, and then when Hojo wasn't looking Edvard got him out of there. That's when I ran into them and I took Cloud to the infirmary. This next bit is going to sound crazy, but Edvard told me that Davis' DNA is like... super or something. I can't explain it the way Edvard did, but basically he said Davis' DNA was the only thing that could save Cloud."

"And that's why you had Davis with you?" Gemma asked, eyes wide as she tried to take in what she was being told.

"Exactly," Kayli agreed, then gestured to where Cloud was standing in the room. "As you can see, it worked."

"Then what?" Gemma asked.

"Owen was in the infirmary at the time," Kayli said. Understanding dawned in Gemma's eyes. "We got talking and when I introduced myself he said it was so weird because he had an adopted brother searching for a twin with the same name."

"And? Did you say you have-?"

"I didn't say anything. I thought it was a coincidence," Kayli snapped. "But then Davis got in my face about it because he knew, and he finally told me straight out because I was being stupid and ignoring the obvious."

"Don't be too hard on yourself," Gemma urged. "You thought he was dead!"

"Anyway," Kayli sighed, ignoring what Gemma had said and plunging forward with the story. "When we all figured out the Roy we were talking about was the same person, Owen took us to Justin. Then Justin told us Roy had been sent to Wutai, as well as what I already said before. I got a bit... angry."

"Understandably," Gemma nodded her sympathy.

"So then I wanted to know why Justin thought that there might be a bad effect on Roy's health if he knew I was here."

Gemma nodded to show she was eagerly listening.

"Justin told me that Roy had been diagnosed with a very- a rare disease called PSD."

Kayli's eyes were shining with unshed tears and Gemma's mouth was open in horror at what she was hearing – although she had no idea what PSD was but judging from Kayli's reaction, it was really bad.

Trembling, Kayli went on, "PSD stands for Paroxysmal Sadist Disorder. It means... it means Roy is the same as Liam, because Liam had it as well. And that means if Roy finds out I'm here, he might try and kill me."

Gemma choked on a response, finding that she couldn't think of anything to say just yet. Roy – like Liam? All these years of thinking he was dead, and suddenly when they find out he's alive again he's got a disease that makes him violent so Kayli might not ever get to talk to him again anyway?

"But surely," Gemma grappled for the right words to express what she was thinking. "Surely there could be a mistake. How does Dr Auld know he might try and kill you? How does he know you're not like... a cure in Roy's case? I mean, Roy might see you and overcome it, don't you think?"

"Remember how I said Roy was adopted into Owen's family?" Kayli asked.

"Yes."

"That's why Owen was in the infirmary. Roy hurt him."

Gemma opened her mouth and found she had nothing more to say. Roy had looked sullen and determined when she had seen him first joining up with Owen, but never had she imagined that he could hurt anyone he loved. And it had been clear that he and Owen had formed a close bond with the way that they behaved. True, Roy had looked more tense, but Owen definitely hadn't been watching Roy warily the whole time as if afraid of getting hurt any minute.

"Anyway." Kayli breathed out shakily and blinked her eyes rapidly, smiling again. "Today isn't about me or Roy, it's about Rex. He doesn't need someone crying during his party."

"Kayli-" Gemma began, about to explain that she was sure Rex wouldn't mind when he found out what was going on, but Kayli held up a hand and shook her head.

"No," she said firmly. "Today is about Rex."

Before Gemma could argue further, Jinx was shouting for everyone to shut up as he cleared food off the table in the centre of the room and then jumped up on top of it. Gemma and Kayli looked up at him as he grinned, hands on his hips.

"I have something to tell you all!" he said happily. "Now, this may come as a shock-"

"Hurry up!" Alec said teasingly, making Jinx turn and poke his tongue out at him.

"I think I deserve to take as long as I want to tell this incredible information," Jinx said pompously, puffing his chest out. "After all, it's _my_ news and if I want to keep you in suspense then I can!"

"If you don't say it soon then I will!" Alec laughed.

"What? What's your news?" Rex asked, frowning as he stared up at Jinx.

"Well, I was called to the Turk floor this morning," Jinx began slowly, an evil glint in his eyes. "And I was given-"

"Jinx is a Turk," Alec announced to the room before jumping behind Dios for protection as Jinx leaped off the table and ran towards him angrily.

"Wow, a Turk! Finally!" Davis laughed and Rex nodded in agreement. The four grunts in the room all whispered together how great it was that they wouldn't have to endure any more classes with the ill-tempered Sergeant and nobody paid any attention to Alec and Jinx as they wrestled in the corner.

A genuine smile crossed Kayli's face as she pushed all thoughts of Roy from her mind and just enjoyed watching all her friends enjoy themselves in the room. It was great to finally be catching up with everyone at the same time since so long, and Kayli wasn't even bothered by Davis being there.

Grabbing a handful of chips from the bag Gemma offered her moments later, Kayli told herself she'd worry about everything else tomorrow. For now, she wanted to enjoy herself and help Rex to feel happy about having his new arm.

Rex, who at this very moment was arm wrestling with Davis and winning.

Kayli laughed.


End file.
